- June 7, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Markets
(RTTNews) – Shares of National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAUBF.PK, NABZY.PK, NAB.AX) or NAB were losing around 3 percent in Australian trading after Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre or AUSTRAC informed that it has identified serious concerns with NAB’s compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering or AML and Counter-Terrorism Financing or CTF Act 2006 and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules 2007.
The concerns have been referred to AUSTRAC’s enforcement team, which has initiated a formal enforcement investigation.
In a letter dated June 4, AUSTRAC advised NAB that it is the agency’s view that there is “potential serious and ongoing non-compliance” with customer identification procedures, ongoing customer due diligence and compliance with Part A of NAB’s AML/CTF Program.
The Australian government financial intelligence agency stated that it has not made any decision about whether or not enforcement action would be taken. According to AUSTRAC, at this stage, it is not considering civil penalty proceedings and that this decision is “reflective of the work undertaken” by NAB to date.
NAB has disclosed the existence of AML/CTF compliance issues in various public disclosures since 2017, including most recently in NAB’s 2021 Half Year Financial Report
NAB CEO Ross McEwan said NAB would continue to cooperate with AUSTRAC in its investigations.
Since June 2017, NAB has invested about A$800 million as part of a multi-year program to uplift its financial crime and fraud controls.
In Australia, NAB shares were trading at A$26.69, down 2.98 percent.
