The Central Bank’s Director of Enforcement Derville Rowland said the company failed to show it had sufficiently robust polices and procedures for anti-money laundering purposes.
As well as breaches in its anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations, Western Union had “deficiencies” in its procedures on customer due diligence record retention, induction and training of agents and systems for monitoring and identifying suspicious activity.
Western Union offers money transfer services and is authorised by the Central Bank to provide its services in the European Economic Area.
The size of the fine reflected the global scale of Western Union’s business, the Central Bank said, and the potential risks from breaching the regulations.
“The firm is a global market leader in the provision of payment services. I am therefore concerned that this firm failed to have in place sufficiently robust systems and procedures to train agents, to monitor and identify suspicious activity in respect of smaller transactions, and to maintain appropriate records,” Ms Rowland stated.
“Where firms choose to engage in outsourcing or place reliance on third party agents, it is our clear expectation and requirement that they put in place appropriate outsourcing controls. I would further remind firms that the obligations imposed on firms and management apply equally in situations where activity is outsourced on an intra-group basis as it does to situations where activity is outsourced externally,” she added.
The Central Bank confirmed that the matter is now closed.
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