The European Securities and Markets Authority says that national regulators are failing to force banks to handle suspicious transactions and order reports (STORs) properly in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR).

When pronouncing on money laundering in the capital markets in a paper (TR19/4) in June this year, the UK's Financial Services Authority noted that banks had problems verifying wealth established over long business histories and that some had dedicated relationship managers who monitored highly risky customers (among them presumably politically exposed persons) in an 'enhanced' way after on-boarding.

Wherever a large firm had several touchpoints with a customer, the FCA observed that the existence of a leading relationship manager, or a key-person contact, allowed that firm to oversee his 'overall transactions' better. This, in turn, helped it to understand his profile or business model and to avoid taking a 'siloed' approach to market abuse and other financial crime. This seemed to be particularly helpful for banks that monitored their customers manually.

According to the ESMA report, at least 3.5% of STORs come from 'RMs,' an abbreviation that ESMA never explains but which presumably stands for relationship managers.