Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF imposed a total of 4.3 million euro in fines on financial services companies in the Grand Duchy last year, less than the 6 million euro in fines issued in 2020. Most fines were imposed under laws preventing money-laundering and terrorism finance, according to CSSF’s 2021 annual report.
The largest fine for last year, 1.32 million euro, was for Banque de Luxembourg, the holding company for BLI - Banque de Luxembourg Investments. Other fines ranged from 500 euro to 237,000 euro. Nearly twenty fines were for investment funds and their managers. Credit institutions received a total of seven fines while three were for investment firms.
The CSSF’s 2021 annual report included a comprehensive section on the fines and administrative penalties it had imposed, but did not name the firms involved.
When announcing the Banque de Luxembourg fine in November 2021, CSSF said that an on-site inspection had found “important weaknesses” such as “failure to report suspicions of money laundering, late reporting of suspicions, delays in the review of client files and non-respect of the principle of transparency for certain transactions”.
Banque de Luxembourg, in a statement issued just before Christmas last year, said the “weaknesses identified” related to facts prior to 2018 and that it has since “continued to strengthen its control and compliance system.”