Exceprts from the statement issued by the Central Bank of Ireland:
The Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) has fined Bray Credit Union Limited (“Bray Credit Union”) €98,000 and reprimanded it for breaches of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 (the “CJA 2010”). All of the breaches (save for one) persisted for 5 years and 7 months, and have been admitted by Bray Credit Union.
The CJA 2010 requires all credit and financial institutions to adopt and implement adequate policies and procedures appropriate to their business to prevent and detect the commission of money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Central Bank’s investigation found that all of the breaches (save for one) occurred from the enactment of the CJA 2010 on 15 July 2010 to February 2016 and represented significant failings in Bray Credit Union’s anti-money laundering/countering of the financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) framework and procedures. In particular, the breaches involved widespread failings in the following areas:
- Policies and Procedures: failure to adopt adequate policies and procedures, in particular in relation to customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, suspicious transaction reporting, training and record keeping;
- Customer Due Diligence: failure to conduct adequate customer due diligence on certain new and existing members;
- Monitoring Dealings with Customers: failure to monitor and scrutinise member transactions;
- Monitoring and Management of Compliance with the CJA 2010: failure to adopt policies and procedures to monitor and manage compliance with, and the consistent internal communication of, policies required under the CJA 2010; and
- Record Keeping: failure to retain certain records required under the CJA 2010.
And the Central Bank lays out why the penalty landed where it did:
In deciding the appropriate penalty to impose, the Central Bank considered the following matters:\
- The serious and widespread nature of the conduct relating to the failure to implement a number of key requirements of the CJA 2010.
- The extended period of time over which all of the breaches (save for one) occurred, spanning the period from 15 July 2010 to 25 February 2016 (5 years and 7 months).
- The fact that the monetary penalty will be payable from Bray Credit Union’s reserves.
- The co-operation of Bray Credit Union during the investigation and in settling at an early stage in the Central Bank’s Administrative Sanctions Procedure.
- The actions taken by Bray Credit Union to remediate the breaches.
Link:
Central Bank of Ireland Statement
Filed under: Anti-Money Laundering, Central Bank of Ireland, Enforcement Actions
