Irish bank fined for not detecting suspicious transactions
An Irish bank has been slapped with a £375 000 fine for failing to detect a series of suspicious transactions apparently the first such fine handed down to an institution for failing to notice possible money laundering.
The Telegraph reports the Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, said it was investigating the £2m worth of transactions at the Bank of Ireland to determine if they amounted to money laundering. Philip Robinson, financial crime sector leader at the FSA, said the bank did not establish adequate systems and controls to monitor the issuing of bank drafts and did not check that its staff understood fully their anti-money laundering responsibilities in relation to the recognition and reporting of suspicious transactions. This fine is the latest that the FSA has levied in relation to money laundering. Last year, Abbey National was fined a record £2.3m for failing to maintain effective procedures and for separate systems and control breaches at its Asset Managers business. However, there was no evidence of suspicious transactions in that or the other cases. Full report in The Telegraph