Growing pains: Starling Bank's £29m penalty for sanctions chaos

Challenger retail bank Starling expanded far quicker than its capacity to maintain compliance with sanctions screening as well as other financial crime control requirements - and has had its wings clipped by the regulator. Denis O'Connor examines the final notice.

Denis O'Connor is a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. He was a member of the British Bankers' Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group's board and editorial panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

The Financial Conduct Authority has fined Starling Bank Ltd £29 million for failings in its financial sanctions screening. [1] Also, Starling breached an FCA requirement not to open accounts for high-risk customers by opening 54,000 accounts for 49,000 such customers between September 2021 and November 2023.