Bunq hit with €2.6M fine for “serious deficiencies” in AML controls

Bunq, the Dutch challenger bank, has been hit with a €2.6 million fine for “serious deficiencies” in its anti-money laundering controls.

Bunq is the latest challenger bank to be hit with a fine relating to anti-money laundering control failings, following Monzo and Starling Bank.

The Dutch central bank (DNB), which imposed the fine on Bunq on May 6, said: “DNB imposes an administrative fine because Bunq did not sufficiently follow up on signals and irregularities in four customer files, resulting in money laundering risks not being detected or not being detected in time.”

Bunq, which has over 17m users, said it did not agree with the decision and has made a formal objection.

The four cases relate to a period between January 2021 and May 2022, as the bank probed Bunq’s compliance with the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act.

The DNB said the high-risk files examined showed that Bunq was deficient in following up on its transaction monitoring alerts. 

As a result, it said, signals of possible financial crime were not investigated in sufficient depth, if at all. 

The bank said Bunq was also unable to demonstrate why transactions with similar characteristics were reported to the country’s financial intelligence unit in one case and not in the other. 

As a result, the bank said there was a risk that unusual transactions were not detected, or not detected in time and that they were not reported, or not reported in time. 

The bank said the fine was due to Bunq’s “non-compliance”. The bank said that between 2018 and 2023, it carried out several examinations into Bunq’s compliance with the Act, where various instances of non-compliance with the Act were identified.

The bank said it had already taken enforcement action on several occasions, including imposing a fine on Bunq, but it had not resulted in sustained compliance with the Act by Bunq.

Bunq said: "At Bunq, we take our role as gatekeeper very seriously. We use the most advanced technology and continuously strengthen our systems - including in response to these 4 cases from 2021–2022.

“That being said, we don’t agree with DNB’s decision and have formally objected. Since this is now an ongoing case, we can’t comment further, but we remain confident in our position."