Bank of Ireland Fined for Money Laundering Breaches (Update2)

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Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of Ireland Plc, Ireland's largest lender by assets, was fined 375,000 pounds ($672,000) by Britain's financial services regulator for failing to comply with money laundering rules.

The Dublin-based lender was fined for failing to detect a series of cash transactions worth 2 million pounds over four years, the U.K's Financial Services Authority said in a Regulatory News Service statement. Requests to keep the client's name off all paperwork didn't make the bank suspicious, the FSA said.

Financial regulators around the world have been tightening regulations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to keep banks from being used to finance terrorism. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Britain and Riggs Bank NA in the U.S. are among lenders that have been fined for failing to comply with money laundering rules.

``Adequate systems and controls are fundamental to the U.K. anti-money laundering regime's effectiveness,'' Philip Robinson, the FSA's financial crime sector leader, said in the statement. ``Firms must identify the money laundering risks in their business and take appropriate action to reduce these.''

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