NatWest hit with £264m fine after breaches of anti-money laundering rules

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The judge added: “Although in no way complicit in the money laundering which took place… without the bank’s failings the money could not have been laundered.” Fowler Oldfield’s predicted annual turnover was £15 million when first taken on as a client by NatWest in 2011 but some £365 million was deposited over five years, including £264 million in cash. An outgoing manager of another cash centre said the activity was “the most suspicious money laundering” he had ever seen but the financial crime manager took the view there were “macroeconomic reasons” for the spike in cash deposits. The court heard NatWest recorded direct cash deposits as cheque deposits between 2008 and March 2017 on the bank’s automatic monitoring system, affecting around £165 million in payments from Fowler Oldfield. “The quality or adequacy of that scrutiny is another matter.” NatWest chief executive officer Alison Rose said: “NatWest takes its responsibility to prevent and detect financial crime extremely seriously.