NEW YORK—Financial institutions this year have paid a total of $10.4 billion for breaking anti-money laundering, know-your-client, data privacy and European Union regulations known as MiFID II, figures show.
In total, there were 198 such fines, rising by 141% from 2019, according to Fenergo. However, the average value of enforcement actions against financial institutions for AML-related compliance breaches fell by 44% lower than in 2019, noted Wealth Briefing in its analysis.
“Among the standout cases this year was the action against Goldman Sachs totaling $6.8 billion (from multiple regulators) for its involvement in Malaysia’s (AML) scandal – including the second biggest enforcement action imposed against one bank since 2015. In 2019 nine fines amounting to $2.4 billion were issued by U.S. regulators to foreign banks (the U.K. and Italy) for sanctions violations,” Wealth Briefing said.
Global data privacy fines amounted to $88.6 million in 2020.