Ahli United Bank (UK) PLC, Guernsey Branch (2014-10-30)

Summary

This is a public enforcement statement issued by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) against Ahli United Bank (UK) PLC, Guernsey Branch. It records a financial penalty and public censure imposed on 30 October 2014 following AML/CFT supervisory findings, rather than creating new ongoing rules for the wider industry.

• Penalty: A financial penalty of £70,000 was imposed on the Licensee under Section 11D of the Financial Services Commission Law.
• Public statement: The Commission published this statement under Section 11C of the Financial Services Commission Law.
• Findings: The Licensee had outsourced compliance arrangements that were inadequate to mitigate financial crime risk, including inadequate customer due diligence, non-compliant risk assessments, missing or inadequate customer risk reviews, failure to apply GFSC Instruction (Number 6) fully to existing customers, and insufficient enhanced monitoring of Politically Exposed Persons under Regulation 11.
• Mitigating factors: Full cooperation by the Licensee's directors, implementation of an AML/CFT Risk Mitigation Programme, a commitment to commission an independent review of AML/CFT compliance arrangements, and early settlement, which reduced the penalty via a discount.

The statement is specific to this licensee and its historical breaches identified during 2014 AML/CFT on-site visits; it does not itself impose new generic requirements on other banks, though it illustrates the GFSC's expectations under the Regulations and the Handbook for Financial Services Businesses on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing.

Key obligations

• The Licensee (Ahli United Bank (UK) PLC, Guernsey Branch) undertook to commission an independent review of its AML/CFT compliance arrangements, to be completed expeditiously.
• The Licensee is required to pay the imposed financial penalty of £70,000 under Section 11D of the Financial Services Commission Law.

Applies to

banks, licensed financial services businesses