UBS has been ordered to pay a $125 million civil penalty by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, over alleged money laundering control failures. The regulator described the breaches as wilful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
FinCEN said UBS did not complete adequate customer due diligence for certain high-risk clients from Russia and Latin America. The findings highlight shortcomings in the bank’s processes for assessing and monitoring customers who may present elevated financial crime risks.
The agency said the sanction was its largest to date. The penalty adds to regulatory scrutiny of UBS’s anti-money laundering controls and its compliance with US financial crime prevention requirements.
