In December 2025, Nationwide Building Society was fined £44,078,500 by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for deficiencies in its financial crime systems and controls. The FCA identified serious weaknesses in Nationwide’s AML framework between 1 October 2016 and 1 July 2021, including shortcomings in customer due diligence, customer risk assessment, and transaction monitoring. Nationwide was also aware that some personal current accounts were being used for business purposes, but lacked an adequate framework to manage the associated risks. One serious case involved a customer who received £27.36m in fraudulent Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme payments, including £26.01m deposited over just eight days. £820,687 remains unrecovered.

This podcast explores the FCA’s findings, the specific control gaps that led to significant enforcement action, and the practical lessons for financial institutions.

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