Swiss private bank Banque j. Safra Sarasin (Luxembourg) S.A, reprimanded by Luxembourg financial regulator CSSF in a public statement last Friday, has stated that the regulator had alleged no “actual money laundering activities”.
“No allegations exist that the bank was involved in actual money laundering activities,” the bank stated in an email to Investment Officer on Monday evening. “Compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in the markets in which we operate is of the highest priority for the bank.”
The CSSF had imposed the “reprimand” on 3 August following an on-site inspection of the bank it carried out beginning in 2019 as part of AML/CFT checks. The CSSF announced the measure last Friday afternoon.
In response to Investment Officer’s inquiry, CSSF general secretary Danièle Berna-Ost explained Wednesday afternoon that the reprimand is an administrative sanction in itself that has no financial penalty attached. She added that there was no repeat offence involved.
Remediation actions
The bank also mentioned the CSSF having found that J. Safra Sarasin “immediately took remediation actions to address the administrative deficiencies that were identified, some of which initiated before the inspection.”
In its Friday announcement, CSSF had noted that the disclosure of this sanction was made under a provision of Luxembourg’s AML/CFT law.
The bank is owned by the Brazilian J. Safra Group and is headquartered in Basel.
This CSSF action follows the mid-September announcement of a 266,000 euro fine against fund service provider Maitland Luxembourg SA and 1.5 million euro in against Fuchs & Associes for deficiencies in their AML/CFT governance. Luxembourg’s regulator appears to have stepped up its supervisory actions in the field of AML/CFT ahead of an inspection by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the global anti money-laundering and combatting terrorism financing watchdog , next month.