الأثنين، مارس 25 مارس 2024
Swiss regulators are cracking down on money laundering, imposing hefty fines and corrective measures on Banque Audi (Suisse).
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has identified serious violations of money laundering regulations at Banque Audi (Suisse).
The authority fined the institution, which belongs to a Lebanese banking group, and demanded corrections.
Banque Audi has breached its obligations in the prevention of money laundering and seriously violated financial market law, writes FINMA in a statement on Monday.
As a result, FINMA is confiscating unlawfully acquired profits of CHF 3.9 million and imposed a capital surcharge of CHF 19 million.
Corrections to the anti-money laundering law is required. Until these measures have been fully implemented, the bank may not open any new client relationships with politically exposed persons.
However, as the persons allegedly responsible for the violations of supervisory law have left the bank and the Swiss financial centre, FINMA has decided not to initiate proceedings against natural persons. It is hard to see how changes in law will prevent this in the future, especially given the precedent that individuals are not to be investigated. No single person faces responsibility for this breach of law.
According to the information provided, FINMA had scrutinised Banque Audi’s client relationships with politically exposed persons from several countries during an on-site inspection in 2021 and found serious deficiencies in the prevention of money laundering. For example, the bank had not complied with its duty to provide information and had not adequately clarified high-risk client relationships.
In the proceedings that have now been concluded, Banque Audi has cooperated and taken measures to restore compliance, the statement continued.
Several people in key positions have been replaced and compliance resources have been significantly increased.
Banque Audi has also clarified some customer relationships in greater depth and parted ways with customers, according to the press release. However, it has also decided to continue certain high-risk customer relationships
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