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Irish central bank fines Intesa division for violating money-laundering law

The Central Bank of Ireland ordered Intesa Sanpaolo Life dac, a division of Italian lender Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, to pay a €1 million settlement for four violations of the Criminal Justice Act, the country's money-laundering and terrorist-financing law.

A probe was launched by the central bank after an independent third-party review, which had been commissioned by Intesa, of the lender's money-laundering controls identified suspected noncompliance with the Criminal Justice Act. The probe began after the central bank was informed by Intesa of the suspected noncompliance in June 2014.

The investigation revealed "significant failures in Intesa's controls, policies and procedures in respect of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing," including violations with regard to risk assessment, customer due diligence, suspicious transaction reports and money-laundering and terrorist-financing policies and procedures.

The central bank said the violations happened during sale transactions in the Italian and Slovakian markets for life assurance products, adding that they happened after the Criminal Justice Act was enacted in 2010 and "continued on average for three years and 11 months."

Brenda O'Neill, the central bank's enforcement investigations head, said that while Intesa does not offer its life assurance products in Ireland, the case shows that firms authorized in the country and "passporting" in other EU financial markets are still covered by Irish money-laundering and terrorist-financing laws.