US financial regulators have delivered the largest civil penalty ever assessed against a broker-dealer for anti-money laundering rule breaches.
The U.S. ?Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has fined UBS Financial Services $125 million for willful Bank Secrecy Act violations linked to inadequate oversight of foreign currency wires, reports Reuters.
Authorities say that the firm failed to properly monitor more than 50,000 foreign currency transfers worth over $10 billion, despite earlier commitments to improve systems, and it also failed to conduct appropriate due diligence of high-risk customers with ties to Russia and Latin America.
Regulators also point out that UBS did not reveal its ongoing compliance gaps following the 2018 assessment of $14.5 million for similar issues.
Those earlier shortcomings involved weak controls over high-risk foreign transactions at the company’s US operations.
FinCEN describes the current case as a repeat violation that warranted the steepest sanction in this category to date.
The settlement also resolves related accusations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial ?Industry Regulatory Authority.
UBS says in a statement that it cooperated with the regulators and has invested in its anti-money laundering program to bring it “in line with leading industry practices.”
Officials stress that such lapses can expose the financial system to illicit fund flows across borders.
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