NatWest has been fined £264.7m ($350.9m) for failing to prevent money laundering of approximately £365m between 2012 and 2016.
Over the course of nearly four years, NatWest’s UK incorporated customer Fowler Oldfield deposited £365m with the bank, of which around £264m was in cash.
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FCA counsel Clare Montgomery told the court that the cash was deposited into 50 branches. This included a £700,000 deposit carried through a West Midlands shopping centre in black bin bags.
Montgomery said that the bank’s staff had to repackage the cash because the bin liners were breaking because of the weight of the cash and there was not enough space in the bank’s floor-to-ceiling safes to store the cash.
Notably, the lender had pleaded guilty for failing to prevent money laundering making it the first instance where FCA has pursued criminal charges for money laundering failings.
FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight Mark Steward said: “NatWest is responsible for a catalogue of failures in the way it monitored and scrutinised transactions that were self-evidently suspicious. Combined with serious systems failures, like the treatment of cash deposits as cheques, these failures created an open door for money laundering.”
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By GlobalDataThe fine would have been nearly £400m but a deduction was made because the lender pleaded guilty.
“We deeply regret that we failed to adequately monitor one of our customers. While today’s hearing brings an end to this case, we will continue to invest significant resources in the ongoing fight against financial crime,” NatWest chief executive Alison Rose was quoted by Financial Times as saying.
