FINMA cuts BSI Bank's 1MDB penalty to 70 million Swiss francs

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 23): The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has reduced the amount of money to be confiscated from BSI Bank to 70 million Swiss francs, from the original 95 million francs after reassessing the disgorgement of profit in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) enforcement case against the bank.

In making this reassessment, it considered those income and costs of the bank that were closely linked to the violations of supervisory law in business relationships in the context of 1MDB, said FINMA in a statement released yesterday.

“FINMA has thus taken into account the new case law on the disgorgement of profit, including the Federal Administrative Court’s judgement in November 2019,” FINMA added.

Notably, the bank had contested FINMA’s decision with regard to anti-money laundering failings in the 1MDB case from 2016 before the Federal Administrative Court.

The latter confirmed the serious violations of supervisory law in its judgement in November 2019 but rejected one aspect of FINMA’s ruling, namely the calculation of the disgorgement of profit.

“Following the redetermination of the disgorgement of profit, this case is now closed”, it said.

In addition, FINMA has concluded all enforcement proceedings against four individuals that were opened following the BSI case, and also issued reprimands to another four individuals.

In two of these cases that were concluded, it issued industry bans of several years.

These rulings were contested before the Federal Administrative Court and are still pending, said FINMA.

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