London’s Gatehouse Bank Fined £1.58M for AML Failures


The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has slapped a fine of more than £1.58 million on London-headquartered Gatehouse Bank for lapses in financial crime systems and controls.

Announced on Friday, the challenger bank now has taken significant steps to improve the slacks in its anti-money laundering (AML ) checks.

Founded in 2008, Gatehouse is a Shariah-compliant challenger bank, meaning it follows and adheres to the economic and financial rules of Islamic principles.

Major Lapses

According to the UK regulator, the challenger bank failed to conduct sufficient checks for money laundering and terror financing between June 2014 and July 2017 while handling deposits from customers based in high-risk countries. The bank even failed to properly undertake checks for some of the politically-exposed customers.

The FCA detailed that the lender once opened an account for a Kuwait-based company for aggregating customer funds. Though Gatehouse had AML policies in place, it did not require the collection of crucial information like customers’ source of funds or wealth for that case. As such, the bank received $62 million in deposits from customers for two years without any necessary checks.

“Gatehouse Bank’s failures exposed itself to the risk that it might be used as part of a laundering process for illegal funds,” said Mark Steward, FCA’s Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight.

“While not deliberate, there can be no excuse for failures as serious as this. The FCA will continue to hold firms to account for poor anti-money laundering systems and controls.”

Gatehouse is one of the many banks that were fined by the FCA for failure in AML checks. Earlier this year, the watchdog fined The TJM Partnership, a company under liquidation, £2 million and Ghana International Bank £5.8 million for similar lapses. However, a significant penalty was imposed last year when NatWest had to cough up £264.8 million.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has slapped a fine of more than £1.58 million on London-headquartered Gatehouse Bank for lapses in financial crime systems and controls.

Announced on Friday, the challenger bank now has taken significant steps to improve the slacks in its anti-money laundering (AML ) checks.

Founded in 2008, Gatehouse is a Shariah-compliant challenger bank, meaning it follows and adheres to the economic and financial rules of Islamic principles.

Major Lapses

According to the UK regulator, the challenger bank failed to conduct sufficient checks for money laundering and terror financing between June 2014 and July 2017 while handling deposits from customers based in high-risk countries. The bank even failed to properly undertake checks for some of the politically-exposed customers.

The FCA detailed that the lender once opened an account for a Kuwait-based company for aggregating customer funds. Though Gatehouse had AML policies in place, it did not require the collection of crucial information like customers’ source of funds or wealth for that case. As such, the bank received $62 million in deposits from customers for two years without any necessary checks.

“Gatehouse Bank’s failures exposed itself to the risk that it might be used as part of a laundering process for illegal funds,” said Mark Steward, FCA’s Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight.

“While not deliberate, there can be no excuse for failures as serious as this. The FCA will continue to hold firms to account for poor anti-money laundering systems and controls.”

Gatehouse is one of the many banks that were fined by the FCA for failure in AML checks. Earlier this year, the watchdog fined The TJM Partnership, a company under liquidation, £2 million and Ghana International Bank £5.8 million for similar lapses. However, a significant penalty was imposed last year when NatWest had to cough up £264.8 million.



Source link

Related articles

Oceaneering wins Petrobras ROV companies contract offshore Brazil

(WO) — Oceaneering Worldwide has been awarded a four-year contract by Petrobras to supply remotely operated car (ROV) companies supporting offshore operations in Brazil. The contract, awarded by way of a aggressive tender course...

3 Android Auto automations that make my drives a lot simpler – and the way I set them up

Comply with ZDNET: Add us as a most well-liked supply on Google.ZDNET's key takeawaysAndroid Auto routines can routinely deal with a number of duties. You'll be able to ship messages, management sensible...

Ripple Lawsuit-Linked Decide Torres Arms Kalshi a Large Loss in NY Prediction Markets Case

Federal Decide Analisa Torres, identified for SEC v Ripple lawsuit, has dominated towards prediction market platform Kalshi in a playing case in New York. This marks an enormous loss for the prediction...

Future Prediction Indicator MT4 – ForexMT4Indicators.com

The Future Prediction Indicator MT4 is designed to assist merchants estimate potential future worth course by analyzing historic market habits and present worth momentum. As an alternative of guessing the place the market...

PBOC is predicted to set the USD/CNY reference fee at 6.8018 – Reuters estimate

The Folks’s Financial institution of China is because of set the every day USD/CNY reference fee at round 0115 GMT (2115 US Japanese time), a fixing that is still one of the vital...
spot_img

Latest articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com