FCA fines and enforcement actions in 2025

In December 2025 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Nationwide Building Society £44,078,500 for weaknesses in its financial crime controls between October 2016 and July 2021. Nationwide did not keep customer due diligence and risk assessments up to date for its personal current account customers, and its transaction monitoring was ineffective; it also knew some customers were running businesses through personal accounts in breach of its terms but had no proper process to manage the extra risk. In one serious case the society missed chances to spot a customer using personal accounts to receive over £27m in fraudulent Covid furlough payments. Nationwide, which had reported the problems itself and cooperated, agreed to settle and received a 30% discount; the fine would otherwise have been £62,969,297.

In July 2025 the FCA fined Monzo Bank £21,091,300 for inadequate anti-financial crime systems and controls between October 2018 and August 2020, and for repeatedly breaching a requirement it had agreed with the regulator (a "VREQ") not to open accounts for high-risk customers between August 2020 and June 2022. Monzo's customer base grew almost tenfold, from around 600,000 in 2018 to over 5.8 million in 2022, but its onboarding checks, customer risk assessments and transaction monitoring did not keep pace: customers were able to open accounts using obviously implausible addresses such as Buckingham Palace, and more than 34,000 high-risk customers were signed up while the restriction was in force. Monzo agreed to settle and qualified for a 30% discount; without it the fine would have been £30,130,475.