Enforcement Tracker

AML Fines Tracker: Global KYC Enforcement Actions

Maintained by ComplyFocus · updated as new actions are announced

This AML fines tracker records anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer (KYC) enforcement actions announced by financial regulators worldwide. Each entry lists the regulator, the penalised institution, the amount, the date, and the core compliance failure — with a link to our full report where available.

Enforcement is one of the clearest signals of what regulators actually expect. From multi-million-euro penalties against major banks to modest fines on cooperative and regional lenders, the pattern shows where controls most often break down: weak due diligence, poor ongoing monitoring, and delayed reporting. Newest actions appear first in the table below.

Amounts and dates are as announced by the relevant regulator. Figures are shown in the original currency. This tracker covers selected AML and KYC actions and is not an exhaustive list of all enforcement worldwide.

What counts as an AML or KYC enforcement action

Regulators use a range of tools when a firm falls short of its obligations. This AML fines tracker focuses on formal, publicly announced outcomes rather than informal supervisory feedback. The entries typically fall into one of the following categories:

• Monetary penalties — a fine imposed for breaches of anti-money laundering or KYC rules.
• Settlements — agreed resolutions, sometimes at a reduced amount where the firm cooperates.
• Business restrictions — limits on onboarding new customers or offering particular products until controls improve.
• Public censure — formal criticism published by the regulator without a financial penalty.

The compliance failures behind most fines

Read enough enforcement notices and the same themes repeat. Regulators rarely penalise firms for lacking a policy document; they penalise firms whose controls did not work in practice. The recurring failures include:

Inadequate customer due diligence

Institutions that do not properly verify who their customers are, who ultimately owns a corporate client, or where the money comes from. Weak due diligence at onboarding undermines every control that follows.

Failure to act on red flags

Alerts are generated but not investigated, or investigations are closed without adequate explanation. Identifying a warning sign is not enough — regulators expect firms to pursue it and document the outcome.

Weak ongoing monitoring

Risk does not stop at onboarding. Customers change, and so do their transaction patterns. Many penalties follow a failure to keep monitoring higher-risk relationships over time, including politically exposed persons.

Late or missing reporting

Delays in filing suspicious activity reports or in uploading records to central registries. These may look administrative, but they degrade the data that the wider financial system relies on to detect crime.

How to use this tracker

Compliance teams can use the entries as a benchmark. If a regulator in your jurisdiction has repeatedly penalised firms for one type of failure, that is a strong indication of where supervisory attention will fall next. Reviewing recent actions is a practical way to test whether your own controls would withstand the same scrutiny, and to prioritise remediation where the risk is greatest.

Use the filter box above the table to narrow entries by regulator, institution, or country. Where we have published a full report on an action, the final column links to it.

How we compile this tracker

Entries are compiled by hand from primary sources — the regulators’ own enforcement notices and press releases — and reviewed before publication. We add an action once it has been officially announced, and link to our detailed coverage where we have reported on it. This is a curated resource, not an automated feed, so every entry reflects an editorial check against the original source.

Why enforcement trends matter

Reading enforcement actions together tells you more than any single fine. Recurring themes show where supervisors are focusing and where firms most often fall short. For compliance professionals, this AML fines tracker offers a fast way to benchmark risk areas against what is actually being penalised — and a reminder that a risk-based approach must be backed by disciplined day-to-day execution, not policy alone.