Grupo Santander

2022

Bank to pay $131.4m to Britain to cover up money laundering by customers

In early December 2022, Santander UK was fined $131.4 million after an investigation by the British Financial Conduct revealed "serious and persistent gaps" in the money laundering control system, resulting in suspicious transactions of large amounts through customer accounts.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed a $131.4 million fine after an investigation found that between December 2012 and October 2017, the bank failed to properly oversee and manage controls that affected oversight of more than 560,000 business customers.

Spain's biggest bank to pay $131.4m to Britain for 'turning a blind eye' to money laundering

The FCA said more than $500 million went through bank business accounts that had "red flags" about suspicious activity that Santander did not respond to. The Supervisory Board cited as an example one case when a new business client who opened an account as a small transfer business, counting on monthly deposits of about $6 thousand, within six months became a conductor for moving $1 million to other accounts.

The bank's own anti-money laundering team (AML) recommended closing the account, but due to "poor processes and structures" this was not done for 18 months. Law enforcement subsequently asked Santander to keep the account open to track activity for a month. However, the bank "did not trace this request" and the account remained open until the FCA wrote to Santander about the activity in the account more than a year later.

The bank said that in 2017, business customers accounted for only 4% of the entire customer base in. Great Britain The FCA could fine Santander up to $200 million. However, after the bank agreed to agree to the agreement and not dispute its findings, a penalty of 30% was deducted. Santander said that as of December 2022, more than 4.4 thousand employees of the company are working to prevent financial crimes.^[1]

The bank stopped servicing UnionPay cards issued by Russian banks

In October 2022, Santander Bank stopped servicing cards of the Chinese UnionPay system issued by Russian banks.

2021

Erroneous doubling of salary payments for 75 thousand accounts in Britain

Thousands of Britons received an unexpected gift for Christmas: due to a technical failure on December 25, 2021, Santander bank mistakenly transferred double payments to them. The mistake cost the bank 130 million pounds - such an amount in aggregate was credited to 75 thousand accounts in the country.

For managers in charge of payroll, the holidays were ruined.

Santander has apologised and engaged in a refund, however its work is complicated by the fact that transactions were made to the accounts of other banks - such as Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Co-operative Bank and Virgin Money. The bank threatens customers with an overdraft.

The court ordered Santander to reimburse Andrea Orchel 67.8 million euros for refusing to conclude an employment contract for a CEO vacancy

The bank offered Orchel the position of chief executive in September 2018. However, during the negotiations, the parties did not agree on the size of salaries and compensation. Santander withdrew its job offer. Orchel sued the bank. He argued that a letter offering to take the position of chief executive is considered an official contract and the bank must compensate him for his termination.

Santander believes that the letter was an "unofficial initial proposal" and had no legal force.

The court sided with Orchel and ordered Santander Bank to pay him a monetary compensation of 67.8 million euros. This is the size of the banker's salary for two years, taking into account compensation and bonuses, as well as moral and reputational damage (which Orchel estimated at 10 million euros).

Orchel's brother Ricciardo worked at the Russian VTB.

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