Bafin imposes a fine on Volksbank for money laundering deficiencies

The bank has to pay a fine of 210,000 euros for failures to prevent money laundering. The institute was already involved in a fraud case.

Dusseldorf. The financial supervisory authority Bafin is imposing fines of 210,000 euros on Volksbank Düsseldorf Neuss, which has since merged with Volksbank Krefeld. The reason for this is deficiencies in money laundering prevention, as stated in a statement on Thursday.

According to Bafin, business relationships were not continuously monitored in the past. No additional information on business relationships was obtained, business relationships were not subject to increased monitoring and reports of suspected money laundering were not submitted or were submitted late.

The former Volksbank Düsseldorf Neuss is one of a number of institutions that have had to be supported by the protection scheme of the Federal Association of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks (BVR) in recent years. The institute was involved in a fraud case and had already admitted failures in money laundering prevention.

A spokesman for Volksbank Düsseldorf Krefeld Neuss, which incorporated the institute, initially declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News on Thursday.

According to Bafin, Volksbank Düsseldorf Neuss had outsourced the function of money laundering officer to an external service provider who looked after several clients in this form.

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