The Financial Services Authority Investigating Several UK Banks

Banks are required to enact certain protocols that will prevent customers from laundering money, but in the UK, several banks have been accused of having lax standards. Customers with verifiable income can usually open accounts, apply for loans and make large deposits without having to account for their money. On the other hand, off-shore companies and businesses without ties to other banking entities need to be closely scrutinized. Unfortunately for two banks, the Financial Services Authority has found evidence that they openly accepted deposits from unscrupulous characters.

Certain customers can be categorized as being high risk if they are associated with criminals or have no long withstanding relationships with financial institutions. For example, a person that opens a highly successful business who makes large deposits and few business related withdrawals should be red flagged. The Financial Services Authority conducted a round of random bank examinations and found that nearly 33% of all banks in the UK failed to identify high risk customers. In most cases, bank officials would conduct a more thorough investigation in order to find out whether or not they were facilitating crimes.

Banks have the right to decline doing business with those that they suspect of being involved in criminal activities. Normally, authorities would be alerted and all evidence would be turned over to investigators. Not only are these measures in place to protect other customers, they were enacted to help law enforcement to delve into the inner workings of sophisticated international crime rings and to identify the victims of fraud.