National Australia Bank agrees to rectify money laundering concerns by 2024

National Australia Bank (NAB) said on Monday (May 2) that it had entered into an agreement with Australia’s financial crime regulator to address concerns around suspected serious breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws at the lender.

The country’s second-largest lender revealed in June last year that it was under investigation by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac), sparking concerns about potential fines and higher compliance costs.

The bank must complete a remedial action plan by December 2024 and appoint an external auditor to provide a final report by March 2025. NAB said it would provide an update on costs related to the deal in its half-year results this week.

“We recognise it has taken us longer to fix the concerns raised than it should have,” NAB chief executive Ross McEwan said. “We welcome Austrac’s acknowledgement that NAB has undertaken significant work to date - and we accept that there is more to do.”

The probe came as part of the fallout of a Royal Commission inquiry in 2018 that found widespread misconduct in the financial sector. Austrac has penalised NAB’s peers Commonwealth Bank and Westpac A$2 billion (S$1.96 billion) since then. REUTERS