Nationwide fined £44m for weak personal customer controls

Failings in its financial crime defences significantly hindered Nationwide's ability to maintain understanding of and monitor all its current account customers properly. This created a particularly high risk where any customers were using their personal accounts for business activity, reports Denis O'Connor.

The Financial Conduct Authority recently fined Nationwide Building Society over £44 million for poor financial crime systems and controls between October 2016 and July 2021. [1] The firm had inadequate systems for keeping due diligence and risk assessments up to date for all its personal account customers and for monitoring their transactions. Hence, Nationwide was unable to identify, assess, monitor and manage the financial crime risks posed by its personal customers effectively. Therefore, it was unable to identify accurately those customers who presented a higher risk.