The FCA has fined Standard Bank PLC £7.6million (including a 30 per cent discount) for failing to have adequate anti-money laundering (AML) policies and procedures in relation to corporate customers connected to politically exposed persons (PEPs).

Standard Bank failed to comply with Regulation 20(1) of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 between 15 December 2007 (when the Regulations came into force) and 20 July 2011.
During this period Standard Bank failed to take reasonable care to ensure that the entirety of its AML policies were applied appropriately and consistently to its corporate customers connected to PEPs.
In addition Standard Bank failed to keep customer due diligence up to date and failed to carry out enhanced due diligence before entering into relationships with customers connected to PEPs.

The FCA viewed the breaches as particularly serious since Standard Bank:

• provided loans and other services to a significant number of corporate customers who emanated or operated in jurisdictions identified as posing a higher risk of money laundering; and
• identified issues in reviewing existing client files but failed to resolve these issues.

Standard Bank improved its customer risk assessment process in April 2009 and, along with its senior management, co-operated with the investigation and have taken steps to resolve the issues identified.

Copies of the decision notice http://www.fca.org.uk/static/documents/decision-notices/standard-bank-plc.pdf

and

accompanying press release http://www.fca.org.uk/news/standard-bank-plc-fined-for-failures-in-its-antimoney-laundering-controls