The Northern Ireland-based subsidiary of National Irish Bank has been fined £1.25 million sterling for poor record keeping, it was announced today.
Britain's financial services regulator imposed the fine on Northern Bank because of concerns about account-opening procedures under rules designed to stop money laundering.
No cases of money laundering were discovered, but the bank admitted to shortcomings in its past record keeping. Northern Bank said today it had put in place a programme of "remedial action" to address the problem.
Chief executive Mr Don Price said: "We accept that our record keeping in the past was inadequate but we were acting in good faith at all times.
"The FSA has noted that the Northern Bank found no actual instances of money laundering occurred as a result of its shortcomings".
Northern Bank is the largest retail bank in Northern Ireland, with 95 branches and 11 business banking centres.
PA