iStockSantander UK has been fined £107.8m over “serious and persistent gaps” in its anti-money laundering controls, the financial watchdog has announced.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said business banking customers were affected by anti-money laundering failures.
It said the bank “failed to properly oversee and manage” these systems, which impacted its oversight of more than 560,000 business customers.
Santander had “ineffective” systems to adequately verify the information provided by customers about the business they were doing, the FCA said.
The failures led to more than £298 million passing through the bank before it closed accounts.
Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Santander’s poor management of their anti-money laundering systems and their inadequate attempts to address the problems created a prolonged and severe risk of money laundering and financial crime.
“As part of our commitment to prevent and reduce financial crime, we continue to take action against firms which fail to operate proper anti-money laundering controls.”
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