FINRA Fines UBS Financial $20 Million for Anti-Money Laundering Violations
Includes Repeat Violations Resulting in a Failure to Reasonably Monitor More Than 60,000 Transactions Totaling $10 Billion
FINRA has fined UBS Financial Services Inc. (UBS Financial) $20 million for anti-money laundering (AML) violations.
FINRA found that UBS Financial again failed to establish and implement an AML compliance program reasonably expected to detect and cause the reporting of suspicious transactions involving foreign currency wires. FINRA also found that UBS Financial did not reasonably implement its customer due diligence program with respect to certain retail customers and failed to timely detect and report suspicious money movements by those customers.
“Member firms operating in global markets bear a responsibility to design and implement AML programs that are tailored to their business model and capable of reasonably monitoring transactions for potentially suspicious activity,” said Bill St. Louis, Executive Vice President and Head of Enforcement at FINRA. “This action underscores FINRA’s approach to progressive discipline, which includes escalating sanctions for recidivist misconduct.”
