In March, the UK private bank Coutts & Co was hit with a £8.75m ($14.16m) fine for taking "an unacceptable risk of handling the proceeds of crime"; the highest ever penalty from the UK regulator for anti-money laundering (AML) breaches. The following month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the US Federal regulator, imposed a robust and prescriptive enforcement action on Citibank over AML weaknesses. Both actions are indicative of a global crackdown on money laundering and demonstrate an increasing emphasis throughout the international financial community on firms' own responsibilities to mitigate this type of risk.
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