Nigerian GT Bank UK fined for money laundering failure | Banking news

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The FCA says repeat offenders GT Bank did not contest the findings and agreed to settle.

Britain’s Financial Watchdog has imposed a £7.6 million ($9.3 million) fine on the British branch of Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank for what it says are other failures in anti-money laundering systems and controls.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FCA said: “These vulnerabilities to GT Bank have been repeatedly highlighted by both internal and external sources, including the FCA, but despite this, GT Bank has failed to take appropriate action to fix them. “.

The watchdog said GT Bank did not contest the findings and agreed to a settlement, which would make it eligible for a 30 per cent reduction on the fine, down from 10.96 million pounds ($13.3 million).

“The behavior of GT Bank is particularly outrageous as this is not the first time the bank has faced enforcement action in relation to anti-money laundering controls,” the statement said.

Gbenga Alade, managing director of GT Bank UK, said the bank takes its anti-money laundering obligations very seriously and noted the FCA’s findings with sincere regret, adding that the FCA had not found any cases of suspected money laundering.

“We would like to assure all our stakeholders and the general public that the necessary steps have been taken to address and resolve the identified vulnerabilities,” Alaa said in a statement.

In August 2013, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined it £525,000 (US$627,323) for breaching the regulations.

“Banks are on the front lines to ensure that proceeds of crime do not enter the UK financial system,” Tracy McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement, said at the time. “The failures of GT Bank were serious and systemic and led to unacceptable risks of dealing with the proceeds of crime.”

The bank said at the time it had complied with the fine and handled the cases.

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