Standard Bank misses PEP screening yardstick, penalised £7.6m

The UK subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, South Africa's largest banking corporation, has been fined £7,640,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority for breaching the Money Laundering Regulations. By Timon Molloy

Timon Molloy, Managing editor

The regulator found that between 15 December 2007 and 20 July 2011 the bank failed to apply AML policies and procedures adequately and consistently to corporate customers with connections to politically exposed persons (PEPs). At the time, Standard Bank (SB) maintained 5,339 corporate accounts for emerging market customers in sectors like mining, oil and gas, telecoms, agriculture and finance; 282 had PEP associations.