The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), regulator of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom, imposed monetary penalties totalling £7.7 million on the UK unit of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) “for serious weaknesses in its anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls between October 2014 and July 2019,” the watchdog said Tuesday in a statement.
The sanction signals the second time the lender would face punitive action touching on AML controls, having incurred a fine of £525,000 in August 2013 “for serious and systemic failings.”
FCA noted that GTB fell short of the obligation to track customer transactions and business dealings in conformity to expected standard, adding insiders and external sources continually pointed the flaws to GTB, which refrained from making moves to address them.
