Dutch central bank fines ABN Amro $12.5 million for inadequate anti-money laundering safeguards

• The Dutch central bank fined ABN Amro €8.5 million (S$12.5 million) for serious shortcomings in anti-money laundering controls from September 2023 to September 2024.
• ABN Amro failed to properly investigate warning signs like large cash withdrawals and attempts to bypass Russian sanctions.
• ABN Amro acknowledged the failings, accepted the findings, and has taken corrective measures to improve its anti-money laundering procedures.

THE HAGUE – The Netherlands’ central bank (DNB) announced on July 9 it had fined Dutch bank ABN Amro €8.5 million (S$12.5 million) for inadequate anti-money laundering safeguards.

The central bank said in a statement it had identified “serious shortcomings in anti-money laundering controls” at the Netherlands’ third-largest bank between September 2023 and September 2024.

In response, ABN Amro said it “acknowledges the seriousness of the failings identified by the DNB, confirms the factual findings set out in the files examined and accepts the DNB’s conclusions”.

The DNB said it had based its investigations on five client files and added that it had identified clear warning signs, including large cash withdrawals made by private individuals and indications that some clients were attempting to circumvent sanctions imposed on Russia.

In the view of the DNB, ABN Amro did not conduct a sufficiently thorough investigation into the warning signs and stated that “the DNB has identified structural failings in the implementation of ongoing monitoring of some of its high-risk clients”.

Following the findings, ABN Amro said it had taken “additional concrete corrective measures to strengthen the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing procedures”.

In 2021, ABN Amro reached a settlement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for €480 million to settle proceedings relating to structural shortcomings in its anti-money laundering controls. AFP