Wells Fargo Advisors fined for anti-money laundering lapses

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters): The US Securities and Exchange commission on Friday said Wells Fargo Advisors had agreed to pay $7 million to settle charges of anti-money laundering related violations.
The regulator said Wells Fargo Advisors failed to file at least 34 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in a timely manner between April 2017 and October 2021.
"At Wells Fargo Advisors, we take regulatory responsibilities seriously," bank spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu said in an emailed statement. "This matter refers to legacy issues that impacted a transaction monitoring system and the issues were resolved promptly upon discovery."
The lapse arose because the broker failed to properly implement and test a new version of its internal anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring and alert system adopted in January 2019, the SEC said. The system failed to reconcile the different country codes used to monitor foreign wire transfers.