October 24 2019
FINRA announced today that it has fined BNP Paribas Securities Corp. and BNP Paribas Prime Brokerage, Inc. (collectively, BNP) $15 million for anti-money laundering (AML) program and supervisory failures involving penny stock deposits and resales, and wire transfers, that spanned four years. As part of the settlement, FINRA also required BNP to certify within 90 days that BNP’s procedures are reasonably designed to achieve compliance in these areas.
FINRA found that from February 2013 to March 2017, despite its penny stock activity, BNP did not develop and implement a written AML program that could reasonably be expected to detect and cause the reporting of potentially suspicious transactions.
