Anti-money laundering fines surge as watchdogs impose tougher penalties

26 August 2021

John Dobson, CEO at SmartSearch, says: “The latest report into the rate of fines being imposed for anti-money laundering failings globally, suggests that financial watchdogs are baring their teeth when it comes to this issue.

“The fact that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is pursuing a criminal case against NatWest in the UK is evidence that these failings will no longer be tolerated.

“But it also suggests there are still a significant number of businesses that, for whatever reason, simply do not understand their role in the fight against fraud and global money laundering, particularly in the property sector and related financial services.

“According to the report, the fines mainly relate to shortcomings in AML management, inadequate suspicious activity monitoring and customer due diligence when onboarding new customers.

“What this tells me is that too many businesses are still relying on ineffective, manual methods of ID verification, which are prone to these kinds of failings.

“Regulating authorities, here and around the world, are putting more pressure on financial services firms to bolster their defences against the surge in financial crime since the outbreak of the pandemic.

“Realistically the only way to do that is to switch to a digital ID verification system where tasks like suspicious activity reporting and due diligence are automated and carried out in seconds across global data bases.

“Business need to make that switch to a digital smartsearch if they want to see an end to spiralling fines and the threat of prosecution.”