£7.8m fine for insurance broker JLT Specialty should be wake up call for regulated firms

Insurance broker JLT Specialty has been fined £7,881,700 for a series of ‘financial crime control failings’ including allowing a $3m ‘bribery’ payment to government officials at a Columbian state-owned insurer.

The FCA said JLT ‘failed to manage their business and risks responsibly and effectively and that these ‘lax controls’ allowed ‘money to flow into the pockets of corrupt officials,’ and says it will continue to crack down on financial firms that fall short of their compliance obligations.

AML experts SmartSearch say the fine – the second biggest issued by the FCA this year – should be a huge wake up call for regulated firms to get their due diligence processes right.

Collette Allen, Chief Operating Officer at SmartSearch said: “This latest fine shows that the FCA is continuing to focus on financial businesses’ AML programmes, and that it will take action – including significant fines – where it sees failings. 

“Any firms that currently do not have proper AML and compliance processes in place should take heed, because, not only are they leaving their businesses vulnerable to money laundering, but they simply will not get away with it, and the financial and reputational damage of a fine like this could be catastrophic.”

SmartSearch can help any firms worried their Know Your Customer, AML, and screening processes are not up to scratch.

“Our platform identifies and verifies customers, runs screening for sanctions and PEPs with automatic enhanced due diligence on any matches – something that should have been a red flag in this case – and hosts and monitors all results, all from one place, “explains Collette, adding:

“We can even help those firms concerned their current customer database may not be compliant by retrospectively uploading and checking all customers – individual and corporate – to give them a clean and compliant position.”

Find out how SmartSearch can help your firm get compliant and stay compliant by visiting https://www.smartsearch.com/get-a-demo