It’s still true that if it wasn’t for US regulators, much of the financial crime in the world would go unsactioned. A Fenergo study published at the beginning of the year says that two-thirds of the fines issued by US agencies were aimed at European financial institutions. Most common crimes included not complying with anti-money-laundering regulations and violating sanctions against countries like Iran, Cuba, North Korea or Libya.
Violating sanctions made up 86% of the fines imposed in 2019 by US regulators.
Swiss bank UBS tops the list of fines of $5.1 billion. A French criminal court prosecuted UBS last year for money-laundering and helping clients evade taxes. UBS appealed.
According to the study by Fenergo, a Dublin-based company offering due diligence solutions for businesses, last year’s second biggest losers were Italian banks fined with a total of $1.5 billion for violating sanctions, but also for not applying the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Failing to adhere to the GDPR and to Hong Kong’s Personal Data Ordinance cost financial institutions last year a total of $1.1 million coming out of 12 cases.
Even if US regulators wanted to make sure foreign financial institutions don’t get away with crimes, a co-author of the report sees barely any preventive impact of their work. “The scale of financial crime continues to grow while the methods used by criminals to launder the proceeds of crime evolve” said Rachel Woolley, Global Anti-Money-Laundering Manager at Fenergo.
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