UBS BROKERAGE ARM FINED $15m FOR AML DEFICIENCIES

UBS Financial Services, inc., the broker-deal arm of the bank, was fined a total of $15m this week,  for AML failures, in an administrative proceeding brought by the Securities & Exchange Commission. Five million dollars went to the SEC, and ten million was agreed to be paid to FinCEN, to resolve what were described as "parallel charges."

The problems involved the UBS brokerage office in San Diego, California, where many non-resident aliens from Panama, Mexico and Venezuela had accounts. The SEC found:

(1) UBS failed to file certain SARs.
(2) It failed to have an AML program reasonably designed to detect suspicious activity in non-resident alien customer accounts with elevated AML risk.
(3) It did not adequately review alerts relating to AML accounts.

Readers who wish to review the nine page Order instituting Administrative and Cease-and-Desist Proceedings  may access the complete text here.