Austria’s financial regulator, the FMA, is investigating Raiffeisen Bank International for possible violations of money laundering laws, the Austrian bank said in its annual report on Thursday.
The investigation, which focuses on so-called know-your-customer rules, comes as the group, the largest remaining Western bank in Russia, is also being investigated by US authorities – the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The Austrian investigation concerns payments involving Russia, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
A spokesman for the bank said it was informed of the regulator’s findings in January and would appeal any penalty, although none has yet been handed down. “This covers the old payments until 2020,” he said.
The regulator is reviewing payments involving three customers processed between 2017 and 2020 in an investigation that could lead to fines, the bank said in its annual report, adding that it was informed of the investigation in January 2023.
The bank said that the Austrian regulator believes that the bank “incompletely fulfilled its administrative obligations”.
Source: Hot News
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