The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) announced today that it has imposed a fine of US$ 640,000 (AED 2,350,720) on ABN AMRO Bank N.V. DIFC Branch (ABN) over deficiencies concerning anti-money laundering.
DFSA has conducted an investigation which found that, over the period from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2014, ABN violated a number of DFSA’s Rules requiring it to implement appropriate safeguards to prevent opportunities for money laundering.
The DFSA imposed the fine because ABN did not:
- ensure that its anti-money laundering (AML) related systems and controls operated effectively;
- monitor and supervise the activities of all its PBI employees and ensure that they were adequately trained, understood and adhered to ABN’s AML policies and procedures;
- undertake adequate risk based assessments of every customer or conduct adequate customer due diligence (CDD) for many of its clients; and
- undertake adequate transaction monitoring of client accounts.
At the same time, the DFSA does not allege that any money laundering took place.
The DFSA reduced the amount of the fine, which could have been as high as US$1 million, after taking into account ABN’s initiative to act quickly on the issues raised in the complaints, to self-report the misconduct to the DFSA, to take steps to remediate the deficiencies and to co-operate fully with the DFSA’s investigation.
ABN also agreed to settle the DFSA’s action at an early stage of the probe.
The DFSA’s investigation was conducted in close co-operation with ABN’s home regulator, De Nederlandsche Bank N.V. (DNB).
To view the announcement from the Dubai regulator, click here.