ALLEGATIONS that UK banks have been involved in a Russian money-laundering scam will be assessed “closely” to see if they need investigating, the Government has said.
High street names including HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays and Coutts are among those accused of processing around £600 million.
Treasury Minister Simon Kirby said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and National Crime Agency (NCA) take such allegations “seriously”. and would “investigate closely” if the latest allegations warranted an investigation.
John McDonnell, the Shadow chancellor, accused the government of “complacency and inaction” as he insisted taxpayers had to be assured that publicly-owned banks are not directly involved in criminal activity.
Labour tabled an urgent question on the issue in the Commons after reports that more than £16 billion - and maybe as much as £65bn - was moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014. Documents from the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international investigative reporting group, detailed 70,000 transactions, including 1,920 totalling nearly £600m that went through UK banks and 373 through US institutions.
Roger Mullin, the SNP’s Treasury spokesperson, said the claims were not surprising, and he had been campaigning for over a year on associated issues. He said: “I undertook research that indicates that at the heart of the issue is the banks’ use of limited partnerships - not only Scottish limited partnerships, but many other forms - that allow the criminals to hide their ownership of companies. It is through that mechanism that these things are happening.”
A Barclays spokesman said the bank complies with the “rules and regulations in all the jurisdictions” in which it operates, adding that it has systems and controls to “mitigate the risk” of it being used to make possible financial crime.
“This includes risk-based systems and procedures to monitor ongoing customer activity, which we constantly review, and procedures for reporting matters to the relevant law enforcement authorities as appropriate.
“In addition, through a number of industry initiatives, Barclays partners closely with global law enforcement in the fight against financial crime.”
RBS said: “We are committed to combating financial crime and money laundering in line with our regulations and have controls and safeguards in place to identify, assess, monitor and mitigate these risks.”
A HSBC spokesman added: “This case highlights the need for greater information-sharing between the public and private sectors, each of whom holds important information the other does not.”
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