Nationwide Building Society Fined £44m for Anti-Money Laundering Failures
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Nationwide Building Society £44 million for inadequate anti-money laundering controls during the period from October 2016 to July 2021. The investigation revealed a serious case whereby a customer received £27.3 million in 24 payments over 13 months from fraudulent COVID furlough payments. Of this, £26 million was deposited within eight days. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) managed to recover most of the funds, with approximately £0.8 million remaining unrecovered.
Nationwide's controls were found to be deficient as they had ineffective policies and procedures for monitoring personal current accounts and did not offer business current accounts at the time, which limited their ability to manage the risks arising from business activities. The firm identified these issues through its own reviews, voluntarily referred them to the FCA, and cooperated fully with the authorities. Despite this, the FCA noted that Nationwide's controls fell below the high standards expected.
Since 2021, Nationwide has made significant investments to strengthen its economic crime control framework and asserts that no customer losses have occurred as a result of these past issues. The £44 million penalty is part of a wider trend of FCA financial-crime fines, which include Santander UK being fined £107.8 million in December 2022 and Metro Bank fined £16 million in November 2024.
FCA Director Therese Chambers commented that Nationwide failed to sufficiently understand financial crime risks and missed red flags, which led to serious consequences.
