The Financial Conduct Authority has fined Nigerian-owned Guaranty Trust Bank (UK) Limited (GT Bank) £7.67m for “serious weaknesses” in its anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls.

The failings occurred between between October 2014 and July 2019 and are the second time the bank has been fined for money laundering failures.

The fine is the latest in a series of substantial FCA punishments recently for anti-money laundering failures.

In December the FCA fined Santander UK Plc (Santander) £107.8m for "serious and persistent gaps" in its anti-money laundering (AML) controls. Today the FCA also fined Al Rayan Bank PLC just over £4m for anti-money laundering failures (see below).

The FCA said that GT Bank failed to undertake adequate customer risk assessments, often not assessing or documenting the money laundering risks posed by its customers.

The bank also failed to monitor customer transactions and business relationships to the "required standard."

These weaknesses were repeatedly highlighted to GT Bank by internal and external sources, including the FCA, but despite this, GT Bank failed to take appropriate action to fix them, the regulator said.

From early 2018 GT Bank stopped taking on new customers. Later that year GT Bank agreed to wider voluntary restrictions on business due to the FCA’s concerns.

Requirements remained in place until the middle of 2021 when they were lifted after the bank completed a remediation plan, checked by an independent third party.

GT Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Company Plc., a Nigerian multinational financial services institution that provides banking services across Africa and the UK. Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Company Plc is a public limited company, listed on both the London and Nigerian stock exchanges.

The watchdog said that GT Bank’s conduct was “particularly egregious” as this is not the first time that the bank has faced enforcement action in relation to its AML controls. The FCA fined GT Bank £525,000 in August 2013 for serious and systemic failings.

Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “GT Bank should have acted quickly to put in place adequate AML controls following its fine in 2013 but it failed to do so. GT Bank did not develop a plan that was capable of addressing its AML weaknesses, exposing it and the broader market to financial crime risks for a prolonged period.

“Firms must protect themselves and those dealing with them from financial crime risks, especially money laundering. The FCA is determined to ensure the market for financial services is safe, clean and trusted with robust systems and controls in place to stymie financial crime. The FCA will continue to take action when these standards are not met.”

• The FCA has today also fined Al Rayan Bank PLC (Al Rayan) £4.023m for failing to put in place adequate anti-money laundering (AML) controls. Between 1 April 2015 and 30 November 2017, Al Rayan allowed money to pass through the bank, and be used within the UK without carrying out appropriate checks, the FCA said. The firm failed to adequately check its customers’ Source of Wealth and Source of Funds when it was required to make sure the money was not connected to financial crime. The watchdog said the failings were made worse by the lack of proper training provided to staff about how to handle large deposits, which further heightened the risk of money laundering and financial crime.