This administrative penalty was imposed on 21 December 2022 following an on-site inspection that had started in September 2019, noted the CSSF in its press release. The inspection was linked to the fight against money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). Weaknesses such as a failure to report suspicions of money laundering, late reporting of suspicions and deficiencies at the level of the name matching controls were identified in the bank’s AML/CFT framework.

Since then, “the bank has taken remedial actions to address them and significant changes have been made at the level of the supervisory and management bodies as well as at the level of the control functions,” said the CSSF in its announcement.

In a press release published on 2 March, Degroof Petercam stated, “Although the inspection carried out did not reveal any illegal acts, the CSSF found certain deficiencies in the bank’s processes and imposed an administrative sanction taking into consideration the bank’s prompt reaction to implement corrective actions and marking the end of this procedure. During this period, the bank has strengthened its internal governance and is constantly improving its compliance controls, procedures and tools, including investing in strengthening its compliance and risk teams to maintain high standards of compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.”