The penalty is the largest ever imposed against a broker-dealer under the Bank Secrecy Act, and marks FinCEN's second action against the firm
Roberto Machado Noa / Getty Images
UBS Financial Services agreed to pay a $125 million civil penalty to the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Monday for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, the primary U.S. anti-money laundering law. FinCEN said the fine is the largest ever assessed against a broker-dealer for BSA violations.
The settlement marks FinCEN's second enforcement action against UBS Financial Services, a subsidiary of the Swiss bank UBS. The firm had previously paid a $14.5 million penalty in December 2018 for similar failures, including inadequate monitoring of foreign currency wire transfers. Despite assurances to regulators that it would fix the underlying problems, the firm subsequently failed to monitor more than 50,000 foreign currency wires with a combined value exceeding $10 billion, FinCEN said. The violations covered in Monday's settlement occurred between January 2019 and June 2023, according to Reuters.
FinCEN also found that UBS Financial Services failed to conduct adequate customer due diligence, particularly for high-risk clients with ties to Russia and Latin America, and failed to file hundreds of suspicious activity reports on time. In one example cited by Reuters, a Russian oligarch with close Kremlin connections allegedly held accounts at UBS even as news coverage raised doubts about how he acquired his fortune and suggested possible money laundering ties.
As part of the consent order, UBS Financial Services admitted to willfully violating the BSA. The firm must hire an outside consultant to conduct a review of its anti-money laundering program, focusing on risks related to the U.S. Southwest border, cartels, narcotics trafficking, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. FinCEN said it will waive up to $15 million of the fine if the firm completes the review and implements the consultant's recommendations.
"Today's historic action against UBSFS should send a clear message that recidivist financial institutions will face severe repercussions," FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki said in a statement. The agreement also brought to a close parallel charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
UBS said in a statement that it worked constructively with regulators and has devoted resources to improving its anti-money laundering controls.
The fine comes as UBS has otherwise been navigating a strong financial period. The bank reported first-quarter 2026 net profit of $3 billion, an 80% increase from a year earlier, with its Global Markets trading arm posting what the bank described as an all-time high in revenues. UBS has separately been managing a proposed overhaul of Swiss banking regulations that could require roughly $20 billion in additional core capital.
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