The Dutch bank ING has reached a settlement with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service of €775m for failures in anti money laundering procedures and compliance, which permitted accounts to be used for criminal activity. The announcement from ING can be found here, and an article on the topic on FT.com here.

The settlement is split into a fine of €675m and a “disgorgement” amount of €100m which included amounts for the under-staffing of the compliance department, inadequate training and because “the system for monitoring transactions was set up by the bank in such a way that only a limited number of money laundering signals were generated”.

There are lessons to be learned here for anti abuse measures in general, namely that savings made by failure to invest in adequate measures will be viewed very unfavourably should they result in a compliance breach.