The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in December 2018 fined five banks for violations of financial monitoring rules after relevant audits; in particular, Russian Sberbank's Ukrainian-based subsidiary was fined UAH 94.74 million (US$3.4 million) for repeated high risk activities exceeding UAH 3 billion ($109 million).
"After receiving NBU's preliminary conclusions on high risk activities totaling more than UAH 1 billion [$36.4 million], in particular, withdrawing cash from accounts of clients, legal entities, the bank [Sberbank's subsidiary] did not stop such activities. The financial institution changed the cash withdrawals scheme and significantly increased the volume of transactions that may be associated with the legalization of criminal income and fictitious entrepreneurship," the NBU's press service said on January 2. Sberbank also received written notification from the regulator for violation of the requirements for identification of clients, public figures; failure to identify financial transactions subject to mandatory financial monitoring; failure to comply with the procedure for providing information to a specially authorized body; and violation of the procedure for the suspension of financial transactions. In addition, Raiffeisen Bank Aval was fined UAH 450,000 ($16,393) for violating the requirements for identification of clients, public figures, as well as for the failure to fulfill the risk management requirements. The National Bank issued written notification to PJSC First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB) for violating the requirements for identification of clients, public figures, as well as for failing to identify financial transactions subject to mandatory financial monitoring. In addition, Globus Bank was fined UAH 3 million ($109,290) for risky activities and for violating the requirements for identification of clients. Moreover, the central bank issued written notification to Familny Bank for violation of client identification requirement, as well as for inadequate assessment and reassessment of customers' risks. As UNIAN reported earlier, the National Bank in November 2018 fined Ukrsotsbank, obliging it to pay UAH 30.45 million ($1.1 million) for financial transactions on withdrawing cash exceeding UAH 1 billion ($36.4 million) from clients' accounts on the basis of documents with signs of fictitiousness or without any supporting documents.
