Britain's major banks remain vulnerable to being used to fund terrorism and money laundering by criminal gangs

Major banks still vulnerable to money laundering, says top regulator

Britain's major banks remain vulnerable to being used to fund terrorism and money laundering by criminal gangs, despite being fined billions of pounds in recent years for failing to crackdown on illegal financing.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned that its analysis of 17 banks found that half, including four major UK lenders, still did not have proper processes and procedures for ensuring they were not involved in facilitating money laundering.

Tracey McDermott, head of enforcement at the FCA, said that banks’ “trade finance” businesses remained particularly vulnerable to abuse by criminal and terrorists and that in some cases the shipments being funded by lenders were just “fresh air”.

“Some banks have a lot of work to do to raise their game to the best of their peers,” said Ms McDermott.

Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the FCA, warned that organised criminal gangs “filtered, cleaned and rebottled” £10bn in the UK every year, using banks and other financial services.

more @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10153728/Major-banks-still-vulnerable-to-money-laundering-says-top-regulator.html