Nationwide Building Society Fined £44m for Anti-Money Laundering Failures
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Nationwide Building Society £44 million for inadequate anti-money laundering controls spanning from October 2016 to July 2021.
In a notably serious case, a customer exploited personal current accounts to receive £27.3 million in fraudulent COVID furlough payments over 13 months, including £26 million deposited within an eight-day period. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has since recovered most of these funds, although approximately £800,000 remains unrecovered.
The FCA found that Nationwide had ineffective policies for monitoring personal current accounts and did not offer business current accounts at the time, which limited its ability to manage risks related to business activities.
Nationwide cooperated fully with the FCA throughout the investigation and apologized for its substandard controls. The building society states that it has invested in reinforcing its economic crime control framework since 2021, emphasizing that no customer losses occurred as a result of the inadequate controls.
FCA Director Therese Chambers commented that Nationwide failed to manage financial crime risks properly and missed significant warning signs, leading to serious consequences.
This penalty follows other recent FCA fines for financial crime failings, including Santander UK’s £107.8 million fine in December 2022 and Metro Bank’s £16 million fine in November 2024.
