The reports looked at a range of different types of financial misconduct, failure and outright offences, pointing to a continued need for standards to improve.

Overall, financial regulators wielded their power more intensely last year, with the US seeing fines on miscreants push above $25 billion. In Singapore, the city state turned up the enforcement heat on money launderers, with more to come in 2025, reports said. 

Global regulatory fines in 2024 fell by almost a third (30 per cent) from a year earlier to $4.6 billion, according to Fenergo, a fintech, although other figures suggest that the direction of fines held steady and, in the case of the US, hit a record high. 

A report, from Fenergo, said that after a money laundering scandal hit Singapore in 2023 – continuing into 2024 – the city-state is likely to go after more potential offenders this year. The firm provides KYC, client lifecycle and transaction monitoring solutions. 

North America retained its standing as the most punishing region when it comes to slapping fines on miscreant financial institutions, Fenergo said.

The SteelEye report also highlighted some eye-catching cases: 

-- The US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported a record $25.3 billion in combined enforcement actions in 2024, including both fines and monetary relief; 

-- The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority imposed £176 million ($214.9 million) of fines in 2024, surging from 230 per cent in 2023; 

-- Germany’s regulators, BaFin and FOJ, imposed €24.6 million ($25.4 million) of fines in 2024, rising from €8.1 million in 2023. This is despite the number of penalties issued falling by more than 12 per cent to 35;

-- France’s AMF issued €13.9 million worth of financial penalties in 2024, slumping by 89 per cent from €127.9 million in the previous year; 

-- The value of fines issued by the Netherlands also fell in 2024 to €3.3 million from €17.4 million a year before; 

-- Singapore’s MAS issued five fines worth a total S$7.7 million ($5.6 million) in 2024, equal to the value doled out in 2023, the report said; and 

-- Australia’s ASIC issued 20 financial penalties in the first half of 2024, worth a total A$32.2 million ($20 million), with H2 statistics yet to be released.

The Singapore case
In 2023, a major money laundering case in Singapore led to widespread media coverage and law enforcement/regulatory action. Rory Doyle, head of financial crime policy at Fenergo, said Singapore could be expected to take more action this year. 

“Learning from the financial scandals in late 2023, and with the formation of private-public partnerships such as COSMIC Singapore, regulators and Finance Intelligence Units (FIUs) now have access to more data. This allows them to identify issues more efficiently, and act more quickly in cracking down or mitigating breaches from occurring,” Doyle said. 

Fenergo said that Singapore’s tightened compliance measures and enforcement actions have brought steady increases in fines, even as the overall amount of fines across Asia-Pacific has fallen. The city-state mostly fined firms for anti-money laundering, know-your-client and transaction monitoring breaches last year. 

The most punitive fine issued for AML breaches in APAC, Fenergo said, was issued by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) – $3.9 million to Zhejiang Aerospace Electronic Information Industry. In Australia, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) led the charge globally with landmark fines for ESG breaches to Vanguard ($8.8 million) and Mercer ($7.4 million)

America
The largest enforcement action of the year, $3.18 billion, was levied against TD Bank by US regulators for deficiencies in its transaction monitoring systems, Fenergo said.

North America imposed $4.33 billion in penalties issued in 2024, easing by 15 per cent compared with 2023. However. while the total value of fines declined globally, there were variances in each region, Fenergo said. In Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, fines rose by 170 per cent rising from $75.96 million to $204.8 million, while in the UK, fines rose sharply by 156 per cent, from $25.26 million to $64.74 million.

Segments
Fenergo said it was getting harder to hit banks with fines than firms in the digital space. Banks were fined $3.65 billion; in the digital assets space, fines stood at $762.9 million in 2024.

Returning to the Asia and Singapore experiences in particular, Doyle said that as China tightens control over nefarious financial activity, particularly with its new regulatory framework for crypto, there will be a potential outflow of funds to other economies such as Singapore. 

“This emphasis on regulation or investigation on crypto also means that traditional fund transfers may become the more popular means of fund outflow into Singapore,” Doyle continued. 

“We anticipate that MAS [Monetary Authority of Singapore] will be more vigilant, not just with scrutiny and enforcement action on violators, but to ensure that all companies stay ahead of the curve and comply. MAS has historically been very cautious and fair with their penalties, but as the year-on-year increase in fines indicates, they will be sounding a clarion call to the market by issuing more punitive fines in 2025.

“With the shift in focus globally on the banking sector and in response to recent scandals, we foresee a surge [of] enforcement action in Singapore across all financial services sectors. It is in the best interest of financial institutions to deploy robust infrastructures for AML thus streamlining processes for KYC, suspicious activity reporting and transaction monitoring,” Doyle added.

SteelEye figures
SteelEye said that the SEC filed 583 penalties worth a total of $2.1 billion, the second-highest amount on record, while the CFTC imposed $2.6 billion. The remaining sum relates to monetary relief obtained via disgorgement and restitution, with settlements for landmark cases such as the FTX scandal finalised last year.

The SEC brought more than $600 million in civil penalties against more than 70 firms, with 26 firms fined a total $390 million in August alone for widespread record-keeping failures. The initiative has seen the regulator fine 100 firms a combined total of more than $2 billion since December 2021, SteelEye said.