Record number of anti-money laundering penalties

In 2019 there were 58 anti-money laundering (AML) penalties totaling $8.14bn, representing double the amount, and nearly double the value, of penalties handed out in 2018 in the world.

Penalties for the legalization of proceeds of crime are provided for in Art. 10 of the Council of Europe Convention on the Laundering, Detection, Seizure, Confiscation of the Proceeds of Crime and the Financing of Terrorism.

Regulators in the USA were most active, handing out 25 penalties totaling $2.29bn. The UK followed with 12 fines totaling $388.4m.

The largest fine was $5.1bn and originated from France, while the average penalty rate for 2019 was $145.33m.

As well as the US and UK, penalties were handed down by regulators across multiple jurisdictions including Belgium, Bermuda, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Tanzania. In total, in 2019, penalties were handed out by 14 countries, compared to just three a decade ago in 2009.

In Russia, a bill on such fines is under discussion.

Source: https://www.encompasscorporation.com/blog/encompass-aml-penalty-analysis-2019/