Online Bank Bunq Has Been Meded 2.6 Million Euros for “Serious Shortcomings in its anti-money laundering controls”. Accordance to Regulator DNB, The Bank Did Not Have Sufficient Insight Into The Transactions of Clients. Bunq Says It Will Appeal.
Because not do not do not do not do enough, money laundering risks were not sene or not sene in time, DNB concludes Based on Research. In Four Cases, Bunq Gave Insufficient Follow-up to Signals and Irregularities.
“Banks Play a Crucial Role in the Fight Against Undernmining Crime because of their unique access to financial information and transaction flows,” Writes DNB. “That is Precisely Why It is Important That They Carry Out Effective Anti-Money Laundering Controls to Keep the Financial Sector Clean.”
Accordance to the regulator, The Online Bank Did Not Properly Handle Alerts That Came From The Monitoring. “As a result, signals of Possible Financial Crime Were not investigated or not investigated in Sufficient Depth.”
Furthermore, The Online Bank Could Not Demonstrate Why Some Transactions Were Reported to the Independent Investigation Agency of the National Police and Others Were Not. “As a result, there was a risk that unusual transactions would not be notited or would be notited too late and would not be reported or would not be reported in time.”
The Fine was imposed in May. The Online Bank Has Objected to the Decision and the Objection Procedure is still ongoing. A Spokesperson Tells Nu.nl that bunq takes its role as gatekeeper seriously and continuously implement improvements. “We Therefore Look Forward To The Lawsuit With Confidence.”
Previous Fine from DNB for Bunq
DNB had previously imposed a fine on bunq for a similar reason. The online bank then challenge that fine and was partial vindicated by the trade and industry Appeals Tribunal (CBB) in October 2022.
The cbb then ruled that dnb could not prove that bunq’s method of screening was contrary to the law, nor that the online bank had fallen short in monitoring private clients. However, the CBB Considered It Proven That Bunq Had Violated Other Anti-Money Laundering Rules, Such as the Obligation to Investigate the Source of A Client’s Financial Resources.