Santander UK fined £107.7M by financial regulator

EPA/ANDY RAIN

United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined British bank Santander UK plc. £107.7 million for repeated anti-money laundering failures, the regulator said in a statement on Friday.

"Santander’s poor management of their anti-money laundering systems and their inadequate attempts to address the problems created a prolonged and severe risk of money laundering and financial crime," the FCA noted. The action was taken after the bank failed to correctly manage several business banking accounts, while also "failing to promptly deal with 'red flags' associated with suspicious activity."

Santander refrained from disputing the FCA's findings, thus qualifying for a 30% discount, without which the penalty would have been £153.9 million.

Baha Breaking News (BBN) / MX