The Irish Central Bank has fined UBS's international life insurance division in relation to various breaches of a new act introduced to protect the financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Central Bank of Ireland and the Swiss banking titan agreed on 19 June that the latter will pay a financial penalty of €65,000 (around $81,700) for failing to comply with specific requirements of the Criminal Justice Act 2010.

The life insurer, part of the Swiss wealth management and banking group, has not been accused of terrorist financing or money laundering as such. Among the breaches were failure to instruct staff and directors about the new directives promptly after the Act had come into force in July 2010. The firm had also failed to adopt adequate written policies and procedures in relation to the identification and reporting of suspicious transactions, the Central Bank said in a statement.

The Central Bank's anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing supervisory unit identified these breaches during an inspection of the firm carried out in December 2010.

On a more positive note, this publication has learned that the failings did not lead to any financial costs for clients.

In deciding on the sanctions, the Irish central bank took into account that UBS co-operated fully in the examination process and settled at an early stage as well as stating that it takes this matter extremely seriously and is fully committed to ensuring that it operates in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The firm has also confirmed and proven that it has rectified the breaches.

"All control weaknesses identified by the CBI have been remediated," UBS said in a statement. "UBSIL is a licensed entity operating according to and abiding to the rules and regulations set out by the Irish authorities. The AML standards UBS Group applies across its entire organisation are among the strictest worldwide."