New research by Finbold has revealed which banks globally faced the biggest fines imposed by the regulators on a Year-to-Date (YTD) basis, as well as the total combined bank fines by countries.
The Bank Fines 2020 report showed fines were imposed by regulators for breaches of different protocols like Anti-Money Laundering (AML), violation of Know Your Customer (KYC) and operating guidelines, personal data leaks, among others.
The top ten banks with the biggest fines imposed by the regulators were:
- Goldman Sachs, US – $3.97 billion
- Wells Fargo, US – $2.96 billion
- Westpac, Australia – $900.9 million
- Bank Hapoalim, Israel – $892.67 million
- Swedbank, Sweden – $421.20 million
- Citigroup, US – $398 million
- Deutsche Bank, Germany – $148.03 million
- Scotiabank, Canada – $125.99 million
- TD Bank, US – $120.62 million
- SEB bank, Sweden – $112.53 million
In terms of UK banks, Lloyds Banking Group ranked at number 11 on the list, with $82.08 million fine for “failing to treat mortgage customers fairly after they fell into financial difficulty”, and Standard Chartered ranked in both 16th and 18th place, with a $26.17 million and $13.43 million fine respectively.
The report found that global banks were fined a total of $10.54 billion in 2020 YTD, with over 30 banks hit with a fine larger that $500,000. The most common violation found was Anti-money laundering breaches.
Another key finding from the report was that in the US, seven separate banks were fined by regulators, totalling $7.61 billion paid in fines in 2020, 72.2% of all banking fines globally. As seen above, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo make up most of this total, being fined nearly $7 billion between them.
