EFG Private Bank fined £4.2m for anti-money laundering failures

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined EFG Private Bank (EFG) £4.2m for failing to take reasonable care to establish and maintain effective anti-money laundering (AML) controls for high risk customers.

The failings were serious and lasted for more than three years, the regulator said. EFG is the UK private banking subsidiary of the EFGI Group, a global private banking group, based in Switzerland. EFG provides private banking and wealth management services to high net worth individuals including some from overseas jurisdictions recognised as presenting a higher risk of money laundering and or bribery and corruption. At the end of 2011, about 400 of EFG's 3,342 customer accounts were deemed  to present a higher risk of money laundering or reputational risk and, of these, 94 were he...