Another Latvian bank fined over money-laundering failures

Another Latvian bank on Monday joined a growing list of local financial institutions to be slapped with penalties for making it easy for fraudsters to launder vast amounts of cash into the European Union's banking system, LSM reported.

Latvia's financial regulator, the Financial and Capital Markets Commission (FKTK) said it was fining Latvijas Pasta Banka (Latvian postal bank, LPB) €305,000 euros for failing to stop massive payments through its accounts in connection with a billion-euro fraud in Moldova.

The name of the bank emerged in a leaked report on the 2012-2013 Moldovan fraud by independent financial investigators Kroll, carried out for the National Bank of Moldova.

FKTK said the amount of the fine was based on "the bank's financial performance as well as the fact that the bank has recognized inspection findings and committed to take the necessary measures to address them and improve the bank's internal control system."  

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