The Permanent Committee of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Monetary Offenses (Sepblac) has imposed a fine of 4.8 million euros on BBVA for considering that there are defects in the supervision of the procedures used by some of its subsidiaries and branches. in third countries.
The sanction, which El Confidencial has announced, appears in the document with the consolidated annual accounts, the consolidated management report and the audit report, dated February 9.
According to this document, Sepblac has considered that there are “certain aspects of the policies and procedures used for the supervision of BBVA subsidiaries and branches in third countries that must be further developed at the corporate level.”
This has resulted in the bank being fined 4,829,250 euros and a private reprimand, which “is being appealed before the competent courts,” the report clarifies.
Sources from the entity indicate that the Group is firmly committed to the fight against money laundering. To do this, it has “a global model that is applied in all the geographies in which the Group has a presence with the aim of preventing and detecting this type of behavior by employees and customers.”
This model is constantly evolving and is continually reviewed by internal and external supervisors and auditors, the same sources add.
Second sanction
This is the second sanction that the banking entity has received from SEPLAC, as detailed in the information from El Confidencial. The latter occurred in 2021 for a value of 13.1 million, the largest so far in Spain, due to the lack of controls when managing the money of Chinese clients. BBVA also appealed to that sanction.
