Regulators in APAC, including the Malaysia Securities Commission and AUSTRAC in Australia, were amongst those handing out the biggest enforcement actions to banks involved in the 1MBD scandal and the Australian bank embroiled in a high-profile money laundering scandal. A total of $3.9b in fines were issued by Malaysia alone. major Australian bank Westpac was fined around $980m (A$1.3b) last September for its money laundering scandal with links to serious crimes. This year also saw a landmark action taken against Goldman Sachs totalling $6.8 billion from multiple regulators for its involvement in 1MBD scandal – including the second biggest enforcement action imposed against one bank since 2015.
APAC has overtaken the US in terms of the value of enforcement actions for the first time since 2015. This was reportedly driven by recent FATF activity and the repercussions of the 1MDB scandal. Second, there has been an increased focus on individuals being penalised than we have seen in previous years. In addition to imposing penalties on financial institutions, regulators and authorities in China, the UK and the US have held individuals accountable for compliance failings. Collectively, financial institutions headquartered in the US received the highest value of fines, accounting for almost $7.49b.