De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) published on 25 August 2025 an administrative fine of €2.6 million imposed on Dutch online bank bunq for serious shortcomings in its anti-money laundering (AML) controls. The fine was imposed on 6 May 2025 and relates to the period from January 2021 to May 2022.
DNB'S FINDINGS
The central bank's findings were based on an examination of high-risk customer files, transaction monitoring alerts and interviews with relevant officers. In the four customer files it examined, DNB found that bunq was deficient in following up on transaction monitoring alerts and that signals of possible financial crime were not investigated in sufficient depth.
DNB also found that bunq applied inconsistent criteria when flagging transactions, marking similar transactions as suspicious in some instances but not in others, and that its ongoing monitoring of the customers concerned was inadequate. Although bunq reported the customers to the Financial Intelligence Unit, it did not report all of the associated suspicious transactions. As a result, money laundering risks were not detected, or not detected in time, and DNB concluded that the controls were insufficiently effective to prevent the misuse of bank accounts for money laundering.
OBJECTION PENDING
Bunq has lodged an objection to the fine, and the objection procedure is still pending. The bank said it takes its role as a gatekeeper of the financial system seriously and that it continuously strengthens its systems, including in response to the four cases from 2021 and 2022.
The decision was made public more than three years after the end of the period under review and more than three months after the fine was imposed.
Bank news that matters, every weekday.
Follow The Global Banker on LinkedIn