BRITAIN on Friday (Dec 9) hit the UK arm of Spanish banking giant Santander with a fine of almost £108 million ($S154 million), after uncovering “serious and persistent gaps” in its anti-money laundering controls.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) concluded that Santander UK had “failed to properly oversee and manage its anti-money laundering (AML) systems” between December 2012 and October 2017.

The failures affected more than 560,000 business customers.

Santander did not dispute the findings, and therefore qualified for a 30-per-cent discount on the fine, which would otherwise have totalled nearly £154 million.

“Santander’s poor management of their AML systems, and its inadequate attempts to address the problems, created a prolonged and severe risk of money laundering and financial crime,” said Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight.

“As part of our commitment to prevent and reduce financial crime, we continue to take action against firms which fail to operate proper anti-money laundering controls.”

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In response, Santander UK accepted the conclusions and apologised, adding that it had cooperated fully with the FCA.

“Santander takes its responsibilities regarding financial crime extremely seriously,” said chief executive officer Mike Regnier in a separate statement.

“We are very sorry for the historical AML-controls-related issues in our business banking division.”

He stressed that Santander UK had taken action to address the issues once they were identified, but added that its systems should have been stronger.

“We have since made significant changes to address this by overhauling our financial crime technology, systems and processes.”

The division now has more than 4,400 staff who focus on financial crime prevention, which is a key focus for its Spanish parent company Santander. AFP