FCA Hits Nationwide with a £44M Penalty Over Major Financial Crime Failures
Hey Digital Banking Fanatics!
Nationwide has been fined £44 million by the FCA for years of weak financial crime controls between 2016 and 2021.
The regulator says the building society failed to maintain effective due diligence, risk assessments and transaction monitoring across millions of personal current account customers.
Nationwide also knew some customers were using personal accounts for business activity. It didn’t offer business accounts at the time, which meant it lacked the right systems to manage those risks.
One case stands out. A customer received 24 fraudulent Covid furlough payments totalling £27.3 million, with £26.01 million deposited in just eight days. HMRC recovered most of it, but about £800,000 is still missing.
Nationwide began a major financial crime transformation programme in 2021, but as I’ve tracked over the years, the gaps took too long to close in the FCA’s view.
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NEWS
🇬🇧 FCA fines Nationwide £44m for failings in financial crime controls, between October 2016 to July 2021. Nationwide did not adequately address customers using personal accounts for business activity, leaving it unable to properly identify and manage money laundering risks
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