REG - Financial Conduct - FCA fines Metro Bank £16m

Metro Bank HoldingsAnnouncement

12/11/2024 08:15

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RNS Number : 8657L  Financial Conduct Authority  12 November 2024

FCA fines Metro Bank £16m for financial crime failings

 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Metro Bank PLC (Metro)
£16,675,200. Between June 2016 and December 2020, Metro failed to have the
right systems and controls to adequately monitor over 60m transactions, with a
value of over £51bn, for money laundering risks.

 

Metro automated the monitoring of customer transactions for potential
financial crime in June 2016. However, its system did not work as intended. An
error in how data was fed into the system meant transactions taking place on
the same day an account was opened, and any further transactions until the
account record was updated, were not monitored.

 

Junior staff did raise concerns about some transaction data not being
monitored in 2017 and 2018, but these did not result in the issue being
identified and fixed. Even once a fix had been put in place in July 2019,
Metro did not have a mechanism to consistently check that all relevant
transactions were being fed into the monitoring system until December 2020,
over 4 and a half years after the system was implemented.

 

Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market
oversight, commented:

 

'Metro's failings risked a gap being left in our defence against the criminal
misuse of our financial system. Those failings went on for too long.'

 

Since the firm's identification of the issues with its transaction monitoring
system in April 2019, Metro Bank has put in place processes to remediate the
issues identified. The FCA continues to supervise firms to ensure that they
have the right systems and controls to manage financial crime risks.

 

Notes to editors

 

1. Read our Final Notice
(https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/metro-bank-plc-2024.pdf) .

2. Metro Bank breached Principle 3 of the FCA's Principles for Businesses
(https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/PRIN/2/1.html)  - management and
control.

3. Metro Bank would have been fined £23,821,700, but it agreed to resolve
these matters and so qualified for a 30% discount under the FCA's processes.

4. See previous FCA enforcement outcomes
(https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/2024-fines) .

5. Find out more information about the FCA
(https://www.fca.org.uk/about-us-previous) .

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