Not only did large banks make mistakes when checking money laundering, investment institution Robeco also did not have its affairs in order. The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) has imposed a fine of 2 million euros on the company for errors made between July 2018 and April 2020.
It is the first time that the AFM has imposed a fine on a financial institution for such a violation. Earlier, De Nederlandsche Bank imposed fines on various banks. Auditing customers and their transactions has been required by law for financial institutions since 2007.
There was something wrong with the checks at Robeco, says the AFM. The regulator cites the example of a customer who was convicted of money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. The customer deposited 100,000 euros into his account and left that amount there for a number of years. He then had the money, including interest, transferred to a newly specified private account of a third party, without any alarm bells going off.
Foreign account
In another example, a client could use his investment account to transfer money from one foreign account to another on a monthly basis. Only after more than a year and a half did Robeco notice the pattern and the customer was asked for an explanation.
The customer indicated that the money came from his American employer and that he planned to save the amount every month, but that he needed the money every time. At Robeco, they were happy with that. “Further explanation is sufficient”, was stated in the customer file.
According to the AFM, the examples indicate that Robeco did not monitor money laundering in order. Transactions were insufficiently analyzed and there was insufficient checking whether the data about the customers was in order. The regulator finds it striking that Robeco has only made one report of an unusual transaction in more than three years.
Robeco has promised the AFM an improvement.
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