Utmost International Guernsey fined almost £2m

A Guernsey-based finance firm has been handed a £1.96m fine by the island's regulator for significantly underestimating its financial crime risk.

Utmost International Guernsey described itself as a leading provider in the international life assurance market.

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) said it was the biggest fine it had ever issued and said Utmost's use of unregulated brokers in high‑risk regions, notably South and Central America, combined with ineffective screening systems had led them taking action.

Utmost International Guernsey has declined to comment on the judgement.

The company's CEO Leon Steyn and its deputy money laundering reporting officer, James Alexander Watchorn, were also fined as part of the sanctions from the GFSC.

Steyn received a £35,000 fine, while Watchorn was fined £10,500 and banned from being a money laundering reporting officer and money laundering compliance officer for a year and five months.

Both men have been contacted for comment.

The GFSC stated that although the firm had since undertaken substantial remediation work, the regulator considered the work likely to take "a considerable period of time".

The investigation into Utmost International Guernsey, which bought Generali in February 2019, was launched in 2023.

Warnings were issued to the firm by the GFSC on a number of occassions, in 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022; all of which had resulted in some specific failings being identified.

The GFSC identified a number of high-risk clients as evidence of the failings it identified at Utmost.

One "high‑risk client", taken on in 2007, was not reviewed until 2021 despite adverse media in 2012 linking the client to tax evasion.

Whilst in 2014 the firm discovered another broker it worked with had been fraudulently altering client proof‑of‑address documents for around 1,900 clients.

In its report the GFSC stated: "The licensee recognised the potential money laundering risks posed by this fraud.

"However, the licensee failed to remediate this serious matter expeditiously, choosing instead to rely on its trigger-event risk review process to rectify deficiencies.

"This meant that 10 years after having identified the fraudulent behaviour, the licensee had still been unable to remediate approximately 200 clients."

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