Germany’s financial regulator BaFin has fined JPMorgan’s Frankfurt subsidiary €45 million for anti-money-laundering failings, marking the largest penalty BaFin has ever handed to a financial institution. The regulator said the bank failed to submit suspicious transaction reports on time between October 2021 and September 2022, breaching its obligations under Germany’s Money Laundering Act. Prompt reporting of potentially illicit activity is designed to support investigations by Germany’s Financial Intelligence Unit and law enforcement, and repeated delays can undermine those efforts.
BaFin noted that penalties can be based on total turnover in cases of systematic breaches, a backdrop that helps explain the record size of the fine. The decision, finalized on 30 October, comes amid a broader crackdown on AML controls in Germany following a string of scandals, including arrests this week of 18 individuals in an international online fraud and money-laundering network involving payment providers and the 2020 Wirecard collapse. JPMorgan said the fine relates to historical findings and that the timing of SAR filings did not impede investigations, adding the matter is resolved and remediated.
