Nationwide fined £44 million for major anti money laundering failings by FCA

Nationwide has been fined £44 million by the Financial Conduct Authority for serious flaws in its financial crime controls. The enforcement, announced on December 12 2025, highlights significant shortcomings at the UKs biggest building society. These lapses left Nationwide vulnerable to fraudsters, resulting in the most severe incident during the Covid pandemic when a customer obtained more than £26 million in fraudulent government furlough payments over eight days. The individual, exploiting weaknesses in Nationwide’s systems, received a total of £27.3 million in fraudulent claims across thirteen months. Over £830,000 remains unrecovered by HM Revenue and Customs.

The FCA stated that these failures spanned nearly five years and that Nationwide missed important warning signs about suspicious activity. Weaknesses were first noted during a 2015 regulatory review, which identified deficiencies in detecting high risk customers. Despite assurances of improvement, the building society continued to experience systemic shortcomings in its financial crime prevention measures between October 2016 and July 2021.

During this period, Nationwide permitted personal account holders to use their accounts for business activities, which is explicitly against its terms. This practice heightened exposure, since small and medium sized business accounts pose greater financial crime risks. Roughly £64.6 million in government furlough funds were credited to 5,191 personal accounts at the society during the pandemic, an issue compounded by ineffective monitoring and controls.

The penalty marks the first time the FCA has fined a building society for anti money laundering failures. This action comes as Nationwide prepares to integrate Virgin Money, following a £2.9 billion acquisition in the previous year. Large mergers in the financial sector are inherently complex, with the potential for risks to escalate if controls are weak and oversight is insufficient.

Dame Debbie Crosbie, the current chief executive, was not in position during the failings, which occurred under her predecessor, Joe Garner. A Nationwide spokesperson acknowledged the deficiencies and stated that the society had voluntarily notified the FCA. Since 2021, Nationwide has made considerable investments to strengthen its economic crime control framework. The spokesperson insisted that customers did not incur financial losses directly as a result of the failings.

The case underscores the importance of robust anti money laundering systems, especially as financial institutions adapt to digital change and regulatory scrutiny. The repercussions of regulatory breaches extend beyond fines, affecting institutional reputation at critical moments of strategic transformation.