Rabobank fined €1 million for poor money laundering checks

Dutch central bank DNB fined Rabobank over 1 million euros for not having its customer files in order, and therefore doing inadequate checks on criminal money flows, Rabobank confirmed to the Volkskrant.

The fine was issued in September last year and applies to violations up to and including 2016. According to DNB, important information was missing in Rabobank's customer files. For example, the bank did not always know what exactly the ownership structure of a corporate client looked like. By not knowing who the ultimate owner of a business is, the bank ran the risk of unintentionally facilitating money laundering or other illegal activities.

Rabobank confirmed the fine to the newspaper, but stressed that this fine is not comparable to a 775 million euros settlement ING made with the Public Prosecutor last year for facilitating money laundering. "This is not about letting money laundering transactions through", a Rabobank spokesperson said to the Volkskrant. "Moreover, these problems occurred up to and including 2016, and they have since been addressed."

DNB told the newspaper that it recently fined a bank, but would say nothing further on the matter.