Australia's NAB Faces AUSTRAC Money Laundering Probe

Fazzaco learned that National Australia Bank Limited(NAB) will face a probe by the Australian financial crimes agency for some serious and ongoing breaches of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) Act 2006 and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules 2007.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre(AUSTRAC) took actions against the bank as a part of its wider campaign against organized crimes and said that there were ‘areas of serious concern’ in the part of the lender’s business that needed to be investigated.

According to the regulator, there is “potential serious and ongoing non-compliance” with customer identification procedures, ongoing customer due diligence and compliance with Part A of NAB’s AML/CTF Program. 

The investigation has been handed over to the agency’s enforcement team. However, no decision has been made for further enforcement actions or civil penalties on the lender.

Ross McEwan, CEO at NAB, commented, “NAB takes its financial crime obligations seriously. We are very aware that we need to further improve our performance in relation to these matters. We have been working to improve and clearly have more to do.”