5 April 2021
Global Research Report on Financial Institution and Individual Enforcement Actions in 2020
The Financial Regulatory
Environment in a Historic Year
In 2020, fines for non-compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know your Customer (KYC), data privacy and MiFID regulations against the financial sector totalled $10.6 billion, rising 27% from the year before.
Key findings include:
- Approx. 212 individuals were fined $99.3 million in 2020 for AML and MiFID compliance breaches
- Goldman Sachs received $6.8 billion in enforcement actions from multiple regulators for its involvement in 1MDB
- A major Australian bank was fined almost $1 billion for a money laundering scandal with links to serious crimes
- Chinese regulators set a historic record, issuing 733 fines to financial institutions and their staff at $96.1 million for AML breaches