The New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has announced that CLSA Premium New Zealand Limited has been ordered to pay a total fine of NZD770,000 for breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Act. These were the first lawsuits filed by the FMA under the AML/CFT Act. The FMA investigated a sample of transactions from 10 different CLSA Premium New Zealand customers totaling approximately NZD 49.5 million, of which NZD 40.8 million of this amount relates to deposits made by two customers.
Violations include omissions in conducting an enhanced customer inspection; omissions in reporting suspicious transactions; and non-compliance with the records in accordance with the requirements of the AML/CFT Act.