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Bray Credit Union fined €98,000 for breaching money laundering and terrorist finance laws

The regulator is “concerned” that the breaches occurred over a five-year period.

BRAY CREDIT UNION has been fined €98,000 for failing to comply with Ireland’s laws on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Central Bank confirmed today that it reprimanded the branch, which has 26,886 members, for breaches of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 which persisted over five years and seven months.

Bray Credit Union has admitted to the breaches, according to the financial watchdog. Its investigation found that all but one of the infractions occurred between 15 July 2010 and February 2016.

They “represented significant failings” in how the credit union fought possible money laundering and terrorist financing.

Bray Credit Union is in the top 11% of credit unions by asset size but is not affiliated with the Irish League of Credit Unions. It is a member of the Credit Union Development Association.

The 2010 financial laws require ”all credit and financial institutions to adopt and implement adequate policies and procedures appropriate to their business to prevent and detect the commission of money laundering and terrorist financing”.

The Central Bank says Bray Credit Union failed to do this in a number of areas, particularly in relation to transaction monitoring, suspicious transaction reporting, customer due diligence, scrutinising member transactions and record keeping.

Commenting on the fine, director of enforcement at the Central Bank Derville Rowland said many community-based credit unions know who their members are and how they interact with the credit union.

“However, this does not minimise or reduce the obligations of credit unions pursuant to the CJA 2010,” she added.

Credit unions must use the knowledge and insight they have of their customer base to comprehensively assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risks in their business and to implement effective and robust frameworks, system and controls to counter those risks.

She noted that the regulator is concerned that a credit union of Bray’s size and scale was found to have breached key requirements for a long period of time.

“The failure by Bray Credit Union to apply adequate identification and verification measures to members and to scrutinise their transactions meant that it lacked critical information to allow it to properly fulfil its obligations to monitor, identify and report unusual and potentially suspicious activity and created an unacceptable risk of money laundering and terrorist financing,” she concluded.

Bray Credit Union co-operated with the investigation and settled the matter “at an early stage”, the Central Bank noted. It has also taken actions to remediate the breaches.

The probe is now closed.

More: Rush Credit Union: Report finds 15 cars bought for car draw but can’t find details of the winners

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16 Comments
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    Mute Cool Lights
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    Dec 9th 2016, 7:20 AM

    Bit of a sensationalist headline giving the impression that they WERE facilitating money laundering but they were actually guilty of not following the correct procedures to protect against possible money laundering. More Red Top gutter journalism.

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    Mute Daniel Wilson
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    Dec 9th 2016, 7:42 AM

    You forgot the fact that ‘financing terrorism’ is mentioned 3 times just because it’s the full title of the breach even though it’s nothing to do with anything

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    Mute Missyb211
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    Dec 9th 2016, 10:03 AM

    @Cool Lights: by “not following the correct procedures to protect against possible money laundering” they DID facilitate money laundering and terrorist financing! All the time they WERE not following correct procedure they WERE facilitating. Facilitate just means they made it easier for the crime to happen, it does not mean they had intention to allow crime to continue or the knowledge that it was happening and they weren’t accused of that.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Dec 9th 2016, 2:27 PM

    It doesn’t even mention whether they carry on doing this, subject to paying fines.

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    Mute Mrs parrott
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    Dec 9th 2016, 7:25 AM

    Another fluffy article where,having read it all, you’re still none the wiser about what the credit union actually did.

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    Mute ⚡ Seánie ⚡
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    Dec 9th 2016, 7:32 AM

    So what exactly did… or didn’t they do???

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Dec 9th 2016, 8:46 AM

    @⚡ Seánie ⚡:

    They failed “to apply adequate identification and verification measures to members and to scrutinise their transactions”. There are set KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) procedures that financial institution must follow. KYC is as simple as getting 2 utility bills and a coy of the passport and AML looks at ‘unusual’ transactions.

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    Mute ⚡ Seánie ⚡
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    Dec 9th 2016, 8:53 AM

    Any money going into my account is an unusual occurrence!!

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    Mute Eric Gaffney
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    Dec 9th 2016, 11:34 AM

    @⚡ Seánie ⚡: Well they either did or didn’t, or maybe did or maybe didn’t.

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    Mute dub jeweller
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    Dec 9th 2016, 9:33 AM

    Bray credit union is the top financier for
    ISIS and AL SHABABB.
    And most of the Kinihan Cartel get the TV license stamps there as well. Read between the lines folks.

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    Mute Séamus Ó Súileabháin
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    Dec 9th 2016, 9:55 AM

    Seriously lads, cop on with your awful sensationalist headlines.

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    Mute Agustin F. O'zuelo
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    Dec 9th 2016, 11:23 AM

    KYC and AML is bullshit paper-make-work just designed by the big banks for their best interest. To keep doing their “business as usual” while small credit unions get flooded with stupid paperwork.
    You want to catch real money laundering, go after Wells Fargo and put some actual banker in jail. Not an underpaid clerk this time, please!
    You want to stop bank-aided crime, start prosecuting bankers instead of letting them go away with bullshit paperwork for everyone else and “oh it was all a mistake” crap.

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Dec 9th 2016, 10:39 AM

    Mustapha Loan and Ahmed Amistake Ondeapplication will be disappointed.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Dec 9th 2016, 10:53 AM

    @John O’Driscoll:

    So too will self employed Sean that doesn’t pay tax and Niall the drug dealer who collects all of his income in cash. Oh, and don’t forget Mary who sells illegal cigs without paying duty on them.

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    Mute
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    Dec 9th 2016, 9:30 AM

    Plenty of money in my account but none through money laundering. Cheers.

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    Mute geordie
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    Dec 9th 2016, 10:01 PM

    Where does the fine money go to

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