Research reveals Belgium issued 95% of AML fines in last four months
Know-your-customer (KYC) solution provider Encompass Corporation revealed that Belgium accounts for 95% of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) related penalties issued in the last four months globally.
Encompass Corporation’s CEO and co-founder, Wayne Johnson.
Between 1 May and 31 August 2019, Belgium authorities have handed down three AML-related fines in this period which have totalled to $336.7 million.
Making up the remaining 5% of fines ($15.7 million) issued are recipients from the UK, USA, Latvia, Norway and India.
“As we have noted previously, multi-million-dollar fines are commonplace these days, as evidenced by the fact that seven of the 20 penalties given out from May to August were $1 million or higher,” says Encompass Corporation’s CEO and co-founder, Wayne Johnson.
He adds: “In the year to date, around two-thirds of AML penalties were given to banks, but approximately a sixth were imposed on companies in the gambling/gaming and cryptocurrency sectors – highlighting the increasing attention these industries are getting as channels for money laundering. We expect to see this shift to non-financial services businesses continue in the future.”
Three of the four AML fines in the UK were incurred by gambling and gaming companies, with the highest fine reaching $7.2 million.
All 20 of these fines from the last four months take the total value of AML fines this year, from 1 January to 31 August 2019, to $8.07 billion – approximately 4.3 times the amount handed out over the same period last year ($1.87 billion).
