Nationwide Building Society has been fined £44 million by the UK’s financial watchdog for failures to handle financial crime risks linked to its customers, including cases of Covid fraud.

The building society had inadequate anti-financial crime systems and controls between October 2016 and July 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said.

It found Nationwide was aware that some of its personal current account customers were using their accounts for business activity, but did not have the right controls to manage the resulting financial risks.

This meant it was unable to spot and manage money laundering risks and it did not have an accurate assessment of customers who showed a higher risk of financial crime.

In one serious case, Nationwide missed opportunities to spot a customer u

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