Bank of Ireland fined over anti-money laundering failings

The Bank of Ireland (BoI) has been fined £375,000 by the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to have appropriate anti-money laundering systems in place, which led to its inability to detect a series of high-risk cash transactions worth about £2m.

The transactions, which are currently being investigated, were undertaken in breach of the bank's policies and procedures and were conducted between 1998 and 2002.

'Adequate systems and controls are fundamental to the UK anti-money laundering regime's effectiveness and firms must identify the money laundering risks in their business and take appropriate action to reduce these,' said the FSA's financial crime sector leader Philip Robinson.

'These transactions were high-risk in terms of providing scope for money laundering and were in breach of the bank's policies and procedures.'

'The BoI did not establish adequate systems and controls to monitor the issuing of bank drafts and did not check that its staff understood fully their anti-money laundering responsibilities in relation to the recognition and reporting of suspicious transactions,' said Robinson.

According to the FSA, the bank has devoted significant resources to investigating the matter since identifying the breaches, as well as taking various steps to ensuring it doesn't happen again.

See also:

Sharp rise in spending to combat money laundering

Bank AML spending up 61 per cent over the past three years  28 Sep 2004

Firms miss anti-money laundering deadline

Some 67 per cent of companies do not comply  07 Apr 2004

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