Finra Fines BNP Parbas $15 Million Over Money-Laundering Controls

By Patrick Thomas 

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Thursday it fined BNP Paribas SA $15 million for failing to develop an anti-money-laundering program that could detect suspicious penny stock and wire transfer activity.

The fine relates to activity from BNP Paribas Securities Corp. and BNP Paribas Prime Brokerage Inc.

Finra said that between February 2013 and March 2017, BNP lacked a written anti-money-laundering program that could reasonably be expected to detect questionable activity in its penny stock deposit and resale and wire transfers.

The self-regulatory organization claims BNP's anti-money-laundering oversight was understaffed and until 2016, it didn't include any surveillance that could target suspicious penny-stock activity.

Finra says that for a two-year period, BNP processed more than 70,000 wire transfers with a value of $233 billion, but only had one investigator to review alerts. Finra says BNP didn't fully revise its program until March 2017, despite identifying many of the alleged problems with its program in 2014.

A BNP representative declined to comment.

BNP didn't admit or deny the charges as part of its settlement but consented to the entry of FINRA's findings.

Write to Patrick Thomas at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 24, 2019 13:15 ET (17:15 GMT)

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