Mitsubishi UFJ unit fined for bad anti-money laundering measures
A subsidiary of Japanese banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., UnionBanCal Corp., was fined by US authorities as it failed to implement effective anti-money laundering measures. A fine issued to the company was USD 31.6 million.
According to a UnionBanCal statement, the San Francisco-based bank, which operates Union Bank of California, will pay USD 21.6 million to settle forfeiture claims by the US Department of Justice, and a further USD 10 million in civil penalties to a US banking regulator.
Transactions conducted between May 2003 and April 2004 through several UnionBanCal accounts were considered to be related to drug trafficking. These accounts were held by Mexican financial institutions.
In a statement, the bank’s president and CEO Masaaki Tanaka said that UnionBanCal will go on working with the regulators in order to ensure that its focus on compliance is effective and responsive and that such failures will not be repeated in future.