The penalty on UBS Financial Services marks the largest fine ever imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) on a broker-dealer for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, and represents the agency’s second enforcement action against UBS’ brokerage business.
Under a 2018 consent decree, UBS paid $14.5 million in civil penalties after regulators found the company had failed to adequately monitor foreign currency transfers because of deficiencies in its automated monitoring system.
FinCen said UBS did not correct those shortcomings and subsequently failed to monitor more than 50,000 foreign currency wire transfers worth more than $10 billion.
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The UBS investment bank and financial services company logo is seen on an office building in Wroclaw, Poland, on May 27, 2026. Photo by NurPhoto via AFP |
As part of the latest settlement, UBS admitted it willfully violated the BSA, including by failing to implement an anti-money laundering program and file suspicious activity reports.
“Today’s historic action against UBSFS should send a clear message that recidivist financial institutions will face severe repercussions,” FinCen Director Andrea Gacki said.
“Financial institutions that continue to violate the BSA jeopardize the integrity of our financial system, especially those that expose it to high-risk customers and activities without effective controls.”
A UBS spokesperson said in a statement that the announcement resolves a “legacy matter” and that the bank “has cooperated fully with its regulators and has made significant investments to remediate and strengthen its anti-money laundering program, in line with leading industry practices.”
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said UBSFS failed to adequately monitor foreign currency wire transfers between January 2019 and June 2023 involving high-risk geographic locations, excessive transactions, unusually large dollar amounts and transfers with no apparent business purpose.
The Americas remains a key strategic market for UBS, which expects the region to become the largest source of revenue growth for its global banking unit in 2026.
UBS also recently received approval to convert its UBS Bank USA unit into a nationally chartered bank and plans to broaden its offerings for U.S. wealth management clients to include payments, checking and savings account services.