Britain’s NatWest bank faces money laundering charges
Tom Wilson, Iain Withers, 16 March 2021
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s financial regulator has started a criminal action against NatWest over allegations it failed to detect suspicious activity by a customer depositing nearly 400 million pounds ($553 million) over five years, mostly in cash.
The action is the first such case against a British bank under a 2007 money laundering law. If convicted, the bank faces a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it was bringing the proceedings after NatWest’s systems failed to adequately monitor and scrutinise activity over an account held by a British customer between November 2011 and October 2016.
Around 365 million pounds was paid into the unnamed customer’s accounts, of which around 264 million pounds was in cash, the watchdog alleged.
NatWest had previously disclosed in its 2020 annual report an FCA investigation in relation to “certain money services businesses and related parties”.
