Standard Chartered’s Guernsey subsidiary transferred assets worth $1.4billion to another jurisdiction where there was concern about tax evasion, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) said.


The regulator this week revealed the reasons behind Standard Chartered’s £140,000 fine for AML breaches announced last June.

GFSC detailed a string of AML failures at Standard Chartered Trust Guernsey, which was liquidated last year. The subsidiary’s activity in the British Crown Dependency primarily focused on establishing and administering trust and managed company structures.

The GFSC said Standard Chartered managed $1.1 billion of assets where the source of funds was uncorroborated. It transferred $1.4billion to another jurisdiction where was concern about potential tax evasion.

It also gave “insufficient regard to whether any of its clients’ funds had evaded taxes and were the proceeds of crime,” the GFSC said.

The GFSC said the problems were of such magnitude it took more than three years to remediate their client base.

The watchdog said however that Standard Chartered embarked upon an investigation when the breaches were identified. It added the failings were largely before September 2016, and Standard Chartered conducted a “substantial remediation” of its entire client base since.

It said: “No evidence has been seen by the Commission to indicate that the Licensee’s failings were purposeful or malicious.”

A Standard Chartered spokesperson said: “The matter is now concluded. As a bank, we take conduct and regulatory compliance very seriously.”

Register for the latest financial crime news and analysis straight to your inbox 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topics