Britain's financial regulator has launched criminal action against NatWest over allegations it failed to detect suspicious activity by a customer depositing nearly £400 million (€463 million) over five years, mostly in cash.
The case is the first criminal action taken against a British bank under a 2007 money laundering law, carrying a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it was bringing the proceedings after NatWest's systems failed to adequately monitor and scrutinise activity over an account held by a UK customer between November 2011 and October 2016.
Around £365 million was paid into the unnamed customer’s accounts, of which around £264 million was in cash, the watchdog alleged.
NatWest will appear in court on April 14th, the FCA said. No individual was being charged, it added.
NatWest had previously disclosed in its 2020 annual report that it had been notified in July 2017 of an FCA investigation under the money laundering law in relation to “certain money service businesses and related parties”.
Clean up
The case threatens NatWest with further costs for past misdeeds at a time when it has been trying to clean up its image under CEO Alison Rose, who took over in 2019.
The bank, which remains 62 per cent state-owned after a bailout in the 2007-09 financial crisis, rebranded from the scandal-tainted Royal Bank of Scotland name last year.
The company’s shares fell 3 per cent in early trading and were last down around 1 per cent, compared to a more than 1 per cent gain for the FTSE 350 banks index.
The bank said on Tuesday it was co-operating with the investigation.
“NatWest Group takes extremely seriously its responsibility to seek to prevent money laundering by third parties and accordingly has made significant, multi-year investments in its financial crime systems and controls,” it said. – Reuters
