Money laundering action launched against NatWest will send ‘shockwaves’ through the financial sector, a senior criminal lawyer has said.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced this week it has begun criminal proceedings against National Westminster Bank Plc (NatWest) in respect of offences under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (MLR).
It is the FCA’s first criminal prosecution under the MLR and the first under the regulations to be brought against a bank.
The allegations relate to failings to determine, conduct and demonstrate due diligence and ongoing monitoring of relationships with customers to prevent money laundering between 11 November 2011 and 19 October 2016.
The FCA alleges about £365m was paid into a UK incorporated customer’s accounts, of which about £264m was in cash. Natwest is scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 14 April. No individuals are being charged under the proceedings.
Claire Cross, a partner at Corker Binning specialising in white collar fraud, said: ‘Despite Mark Steward, the FCA’s head of enforcement, stating back in 2018 that the regulator had commenced a small number of investigations to ascertain whether there had been any misconduct in the industry that might justify a prosecution under the MLR, up until today the general consensus was that a criminal case would be unlikely to be forth coming.
‘This was partly due to the fact that the FCA had shut the majority of its criminal based investigations in this area and partly due to the amount of time that had passed since the original announcement.’
Cross said the proceedings set ‘an important precedent―no-one is too big to escape the FCA’s criminal net.
‘Mark Steward claimed in 2019 that he suspected that criminal cases rather than civil or regulatory action would be “exceptional” but he was also keen that the prosecution powers should not be a “white elephant”.’
