LONDON (Reuters) - The British subsidiary of Bank of Beirut (BY:BOB) has been fined 2.1 million pounds and barred from signing up new customers from some jurisdictions for 126 days after misleading the banking watchdog over its financial crime controls.
In its first such sanction on a bank, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Thursday that it had also fined two of the bank's employees after Bank of Beirut (UK) Ltd repeatedly provided misleading information when ordered to address concerns about its financial crime systems and controls.
Anthony Wills, the former compliance officer, and internal auditor Michael Allin have been fined 19,600 pounds and 9,900 pounds respectively after failing to deal with the regulator in "an open and cooperative way", the FCA said.
Georgina Philippou, the FCA's acting director of enforcement and market oversight, said that regulators depend on banks' compliance and internal audit staff to act as a first line of defence and to "show backbone" when challenged by colleagues.
"It is essential to consumer protection, market integrity and the prevention of financial crime that we can rely on firms giving us the right information at the right time," Philippou said. "Bank of Beirut's failings impeded us and left it open to the risk that it might be used for financial crime."
The bank, Wills and Allin cooperated with the FCA investigation and qualified for a 30 percent reduction in their original fines.
The bank, which was not immediately available for comment, has been barred from signing up new customers from jurisdictions that the FCA deems as being at a high risk of financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering and the threat of terrorism.
The FCA does not disclose this list.