Tuesday 26 September 2023 2:49 pm

EY hands back £15m to Santander over ‘poor’ work on financial crime defences

The move comes after Santander last year launched a BNPL product for consumers

EY agreed to terminate a contract with Santander’s UK business after its anti-financial crime work for the bank was deemed to be insufficient, according to a report.

The Big Four firm was hired by Santander to help address issues with the bank’s anti-money laundering and financial crime defence systems as part of a project known as “Project Morgan”, the Financial Times reported.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority fined Santander £108m in December for shortcomings in its anti-money laundering systems between 2012 and 2017.

But sources told the paper that EY’s work was “so poor” the firm was forced to offer the bank a £15m refund earlier this year.

It is unknown whether the bank will bring in another external firm to replace EY or complete the work in house.

EY declined to comment on the report.

A Santander spokesperson said: “In the last five years alone we have invested over £700m in a major change programme to transform our bank-wide financial crime framework.

“We need to keep pace with technological change, which involves piloting new platforms and processes to ensure we are complying with best practice and continuing to innovate.”