Banks Face Increasing Pressure from the FSA over anti-fraud policies

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The FSA's announcement that it has ordered the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ to improve its business practices with regard to internal controls and compliance, has illustrated the FSA’s increasing focus on reducing fraud and administrative errors within the banking sector.

Only last month, BNP Paribas was fined £350,000 by the FSA after lax internal controls enabled an employee to defraud the bank of more than £1.4 million.

"Banks, like most companies, are susceptible to fraud if robust internal controls are not in place to highlight irregularities. The FSA is clearly not going to brook weak anti-fraud policies any more, and banks need to identify the long-term financial benefits of closing these loopholes," says Liz Maloney, regional director of EMEA for ACL Services.

BNP Paribas's Inspection Générale - the internal audit function - is now using ACL to achieve complete visibility of all financial transitions across the business, by highlighting potential control point failures to generate an accurate picture of corporate risk.