A branch of the Dutch bank ABN Amro is the latest to be fined by the regulator of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) for inadequate measures to prevent money laundering.
The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), which regulates the DIFC, fined ABN Amro Bank NV DIFC Branch $640,000 for the failures, which were revealed after two whisteblower reports alerted ABN Amro’s management to problems in the international private banking division.
The failings included inadequate anti-money-laundering controls, inadequate monitoring and training of private bank employees, inadequate risk assessments of customers and inadequate monitoring of client accounts.
This summer, Dubai-based asset manager Arqaam Capital was fined $50,000 for weaknesses in its anti-money-laundering controls, and in April, a DIFC unit of Deutsche Bank was fined a record $8.4 million.
The acting chief executive of the DFSA says ABN demonstrated a “good compliance culture” after the problems were identified. The firm had its penalty reduced for self-reporting the misconduct and for cooperating with the regulator.
ABN Amro was separately fined €625,000 ($671,000) by the central bank of the Netherlands, which carried out its own investigation into the irregularities in the Dubai private banking operation. A statement from ABN Amro says the bank “sincerely regrets these irregularities and will not appeal the fines”.
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