Francis Ajuonuma
Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, United Kingdom has reached a settlement with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to pay a fine of £7.6m clamped on it by the financial watchdog body over anti-money laundering systems failures.
The FCA had in a statement, said that the fine was imposed due to observed failures in GTBank’s anti-money laundering systems and controls relating to events that took place between October 2014 and July 2019.
The financial watchdog body also noted that the bank failed to undertake adequate customer risk assessments during the period, including failure to assess or document the money laundering risks posed by its customers.
I40,000 international passports still uncollected – NIS
GTBank UK in its response through the Managing Director, Gbenga Alade, explained that the bank takes its anti-money laundering obligations extremely seriously and noted the FCA’s findings with sincere regret whilst adding that the FCA found no instances of suspected money laundering.
“We would like to assure all our stakeholders and the general public that necessary steps have been taken to address and resolve the identified gaps,” the MD noted.
Last December, The FCA also fined Santander UK Plc (Santander) £107,793,300 after it found serious and persistent gaps in its anti-money laundering (AML) controls, affecting its Business Banking customers between December 31, 2012, and October 18, 2017,
The FCA notes were repeatedly highlighted to GTBank by internal and external sources. Despite this, the bank allegedly failed to take appropriate action to fix them.
“GT Bank’s conduct is particularly egregious as this is not the first time that the bank has faced enforcement action in relation to its AML controls,” It added.
GTBank has not disputed the findings and agreed to settle. Hence, the UK regulator said the bank is eligible for a 30 per cent discount on the fine, down from the original £10.96 million fine that was imposed.
GTBank UK is a British subsidiary of Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank.
