One of the UK's most successful challenger banks is
in receipt of the FCA's biggest financial penalty of the year
to date.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined
London-headquartered Starling Bank, one of the new wave of
so-called challenger banks, almost GBP 29 million for a range of
financial misdeeds, representing the biggest penalty levied so far
this year by the regulator and knocking Citigroup Global
Markets' GBP 27.8 million penalty, issued in May, into the
runner-up spot.
According to an FCA news release, between September 2021 and
November 2023 Starling opened 54,000 accounts for high-risk
customers, despite vowing to tighten up its procedures following a
2021 FCA review which revealed grievous shortcomings in the
bank's
anti-money laundering and sanctions
framework.