LONDON—Analysis of global AML penalties between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 2019 found a total of $8.14 billion in fines were handed down as the result of 58 AML-related breaches.
According to the study by Encompass Corp., regulators in the U.S. were most active, handing out 25 penalties totaling $2.29 billion.
Encompass said the average monetary fine in 2019 was $145.33 million. Just under half of money laundering penalties given out in 2019 were to banks (28 of 58), compared to two-thirds in 2018 (20 of 29), noted International Investment in its analysis.
Fines were handed down by regulators across multiple jurisdictions beyond the U.S. and U.K. These include Belgium, Bermuda, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Tanzania, International Investment said.
"Since 2015, annual AML penalty figures have been steadily rising each year. Multi-million dollar fines have been commonplace for a while, but we are now seeing more penalties of one billion dollars or over, with two in 2019 alone,” said Wayne Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Encompass Corporation.