FCA fines for systems and controls failings

In December 2025 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Nationwide Building Society £44,078,500 for weaknesses in its financial crime controls between October 2016 and July 2021. Nationwide did not keep customer due diligence and risk assessments up to date for its personal current account customers, and its transaction monitoring was ineffective; it also knew some customers were running businesses through personal accounts in breach of its terms but had no proper process to manage the extra risk. In one serious case the society missed chances to spot a customer using personal accounts to receive over £27m in fraudulent Covid furlough payments. Nationwide, which had reported the problems itself and cooperated, agreed to settle and received a 30% discount; the fine would otherwise have been £62,969,297.

In July 2025 the FCA fined Monzo Bank £21,091,300 for inadequate anti-financial crime systems and controls between October 2018 and August 2020, and for repeatedly breaching a requirement it had agreed with the regulator (a "VREQ") not to open accounts for high-risk customers between August 2020 and June 2022. Monzo's customer base grew almost tenfold, from around 600,000 in 2018 to over 5.8 million in 2022, but its onboarding checks, customer risk assessments and transaction monitoring did not keep pace: customers were able to open accounts using obviously implausible addresses such as Buckingham Palace, and more than 34,000 high-risk customers were signed up while the restriction was in force. Monzo agreed to settle and qualified for a 30% discount; without it the fine would have been £30,130,475.

The FCA fined Starling Bank £28,959,426 for failings in its financial crime systems and controls between December 2019 and November 2023 — the regulator's first fine against a digital challenger bank. Starling's customer numbers grew from about 43,000 in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2023 but its safeguards did not keep up: in January 2023 it discovered that since 2017 its automated screening had been checking customers against only a fraction of the full financial sanctions list, and it breached a requirement agreed with the FCA in 2021 not to open accounts for high-risk customers by opening over 54,000 accounts for around 49,000 such customers between September 2021 and November 2023. The FCA described the bank's controls as "shockingly lax". Starling agreed to settle and received a 30% discount; the fine would otherwise have been £40,959,426.

The FCA fined Barclays Bank £783,800 in February 2022 for weak oversight of its business customer Premier FX, a small payments firm for which Barclays was the sole UK banker. Premier FX collapsed in 2018 after the death of its sole director, when it emerged it had been taking deposits it was not authorised to take and had not kept client money separate, leaving 167 customers — mostly British expats in Spain and Portugal — with losses of just over £10 million. The FCA found Barclays failed to act with due skill, care and diligence: it did not check that Premier FX's real activity matched what it expected, and it missed signs that the firm's internal controls were deficient. Barclays settled early for a 30% discount and voluntarily paid £10,076,943.75 so that every customer with an accepted claim got all their money back.

On 5 February 2016, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined NatWest Markets Plc £14,000,000.

On 24 February 2015, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Aviva Investors Global Services Limited £17,607,000.

On 20 November 2014 the FCA fined Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank £42 million for the IT meltdown of June 2012, when a software compatibility problem in the banks' systems left more than 6.5 million UK customers unable to use online banking, see accurate balances at cash machines or make payments — in some cases for several weeks. The FCA found the immediate cause was a software compatibility problem, but the underlying failure was that the banks had not put in place adequate systems and controls to identify and manage their exposure to IT risk, breaching the rule that firms must organise and control their affairs responsibly. The banks settled at an early stage and received a 30% discount. In the first joint enforcement action of its kind, the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority separately fined the banks £14 million for the same incident, taking the total to £56 million.

On 12 November 2014 the FCA fined The Royal Bank of Scotland £217 million as part of a record £1.1 billion settlement with five banks (RBS, Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and UBS) over failings in their spot foreign exchange trading. Between 1 January 2008 and 15 October 2013 ineffective controls allowed traders to share confidential information about client orders in chat rooms and coordinate their trading to manipulate benchmark exchange rates, putting the banks' interests ahead of their clients and the wider financial system. RBS settled early and received a 30% discount; without it the fine would have been £310 million. The bank also paid $290 million to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission the same day, suspended three employees and launched a review of the conduct of more than 50 current and former traders.

On 24 September 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays Bank Plc £37,745,000.

On 28 July 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Bank of Scotland plc £105,000,000.

On 28 July 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Lloyds Bank PLC £105,000,000.

On 27 May 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays Bank Plc £26,033,500.

On 11 December 2013, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Bank of Scotland plc £28,038,800.

On 11 December 2013, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Lloyds Bank PLC £28,038,800.

On 19 February 2013, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Lloyds Bank PLC £4,315,000.

On 19 February 2013, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Bank of Scotland plc £4,315,000.

On 6 February 2013, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined NatWest Markets Plc £87,500,000.

On 19 October 2012, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Bank of Scotland plc £4,200,000.

On 27 June 2012 the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the FCA's predecessor, fined Barclays Bank £59.5 million — its largest ever fine — for misconduct in the way it submitted rates for LIBOR and EURIBOR, the benchmark interest rates that underpin trillions of pounds of loans and financial contracts. Between 2005 and 2009 Barclays' submissions took account of requests from its own derivatives traders who stood to profit, it tried to influence other banks' EURIBOR submissions, and during the financial crisis it lowered its LIBOR submissions because senior managers were worried about negative media comment on the bank's health. The FSA found Barclays lacked adequate controls over the process and failed to act with due skill and care when concerns were raised internally. Barclays settled early for a 30% discount (the fine would otherwise have been £85 million) and paid a further $360 million to US authorities, bringing the total to about £290 million; within days chairman Marcus Agius and chief executive Bob Diamond had resigned.

On 23 March 2012, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) publicly censured Bank of Scotland plc.

On 25 May 2011, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Bank of Scotland plc £3,500,000.

On 20 January 2011, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Gain Capital UK Limited £490,000.

On 11 January 2011, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined NatWest Markets Plc £2,800,000.

On 9 August 2010, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined NatWest Markets Plc £5,600,000.

On 8 September 2009, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Barclays Bank Plc £2,450,000.

On 14 February 2007, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Nationwide Building Society £980,000.

On 23 March 2005, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Gain Capital UK Limited £35,000.

On 12 January 2004, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Bank of Scotland plc £1,250,000.

On 9 December 2003, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined Santander Asset Management UK Limited £320,000.

On 12 December 2002, the Financial Services Authority (the FCA's predecessor) fined NatWest Markets Plc £750,000.