The supervisory authorities in the Netherlands and Dubai have fined ABN AMRO for serious shortcomings in the client acceptance and risk management processes, aimed at preventing money laundering at its private banking branch in Dubai.
The bank has been fined EUR625,000 by the Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and a further $640,000 by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).
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According to the regulators, the shortcomings were related to the identification of beneficial owners, insight into clients’ structures, establishing the source of wealth as well as adequate transaction monitoring.
The regulators also found shortcomings in oversight by ABN AMRO’S head office of its Dubai branch.
DNB said that the bank’s client screening procedures of its office in Dubai failed to comply with the Dutch Act to prevent Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (Wwft).
The DFSA investigation found that ABN AMRO contravened a number of specific DFSA rules.
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By GlobalDataABN AMRO said in a statement it sincerely regrets these irregularities and will not appeal the fines. It underlined that regulators did not find that money laundering actually occurred at the Dubai branch.
These irregularities follow an internal investigation conducted by the bank in response to two whistleblower reports.
In September 2015, ABN AMRO Group has fired another employee at its private banking arm in Dubai for breaching its code of conduct, bringing the total of fired employees in the fraud investigation up to nine.
As part of the move, the bank has launched a remediation programme, which includes a review of the client portfolio of ABN AMRO’s Private Banking office in Dubai. The review is scheduled to complete by the end of 2015.
The bank has also terminated its relationship with about 80 clients and a number of intermediaries, while a number of clients have also ended the relationship with the bank.
Additionally, ABN AMRO has undertaken measures to further boost its international governance and is in the process of proactively reviewing client files in the Netherlands and abroad.
