The German bank Commerzbank has been fined  nearly £38 million from the Uk's financial watchdog, the FCA, due to deficiencies in its anti-money laundering scheme, the FCA announced on Wednesday.

According to the latter, the Uk branch of  Commerzbank had not put in place adequate mechanisms to combat money laundering between October 2012 and September 2017.

In particular, the bank did not carry out all the checks for a number of customers and its system for automatic detection of suspicious transactions was incomplete.

The FCA notes that the bank was aware of these flaws that it did not correct right away despite numerous warnings.

"Failures of  Commerzbank London for several years have created a significant risk that financial and other crimes may go undetected," said Mark Steward, an FCA official.

"Businesses need to realise that anti-money laundering systems are crucial to the integrity of the UK financial system," he said.

Commerzbank  has subsequently taken the necessary measures to strengthen its anti-money laundering system, says the FCA.

The bank agreed to cooperate very quickly at the beginning of the investigation launched by the regulator, which allowed it to reduce by 30% the amount of the penalty it was initially likely to receive.