NEW YORK—Global anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) fines are up in 2024, new data reveal.
Fenergo has released its half-year annual findings on global financial institution enforcement actions and found a 31% surge in the value of fines issued in H1 2024 compared to H1 2023, Markets Media reported.
Asia-pacific firms saw the biggest rise in penalties imposed, totaling over $46 million – a 266% increase compared with H1 of 2023, Markets Media stated in its analysis.
The report found global financial regulators levied 80 fines in the first half of 2024, totaling $263,252,003 for non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, including KYC, as well as sanctions, suspicious activity reports (SARs), and transaction monitoring violations.
In the same period last year, regulators issued over $201m in penalties for the same types of violations. The findings – which relate to enforcement actions spanning EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific – indicate a multi-year trend of increasing fines, as watchdogs continue to crackdown on illicit behavior across the globe, Markets Media said.
Biggest Fine: $65 Million
“The highest value fine in 2024 thus far, at $65 million, was issued to the U.S. subsidiary of a Canadian bank following unsafe practices related to operational, compliance, and strategic risk management controls.
The bank was ordered to pay the fine to resolve investigations by The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC),” Markets Media said.
Biggest Increases
The most significant increase in enforcement action values relate to AML, which increased by 87% to $113.2 million, while penalties specifically for transaction monitoring, and SAR breaches, increased to a staggering $30.5 million over the last six months, up from $6 million, Markets Media said.