Bunq fined €2.6 million for failing anti-money laundering controls
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has fined the online bank bunq €2.6 million for failing to sufficiently screen and monitor its customers. According to the Dutch regulator, multiple examinations into bunq’s compliance with the anti-money laundering act revealed various instances of non-compliance that were found to be “both severe and culpable.”
The Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act obliges banks in the Netherlands to screen and monitor their customers for suspicious transactions. “This means that banks must know who their customers are, where the customers’ money comes from, and what customers intend to do with financial products,” DNB explained.
DNB examined four bunq customer files flagged as high-risk for money laundering or terrorist financing and found that bunq was “deficient” in following up on its transaction monitoring. “As a result, signals of possible financial crime were not investigated in sufficient depth, if at all,” DNB said. The online bank also couldn’t explain why it flagged similar transactions as suspicious in some cases, but not in others.
“Bunq failed to exercise adequate ongoing monitoring in the four files on which DNB's administrative fine is based. As a result, bunq did not have sufficient insight into these customers and their transactions. Given the severity and extent of the deficiencies in these files, DNB considers the fine imposed both necessary and appropriate,” the regulator said. The fine is based on violations in the period from January 2021 to May 2022.
Bunq has filed an objection to the fine. The objection process is still pending.
