This week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a £42 million fine for Barclays, citing failures in financial crime controls related to two client relationships. While headlines focus on the penalty, the real takeaway for the industry should be that AML risk is getting harder to manage, and the expectations are rising.

For compliance and financial crime professionals, this serves as a timely reminder of the importance of continually reviewing how we detect, monitor, and respond to emerging risks across client relationships

The Real Challenge: Risk doesn’t stop at onboarding

In both of the FCA’s cited cases, WealthTek and Stunt & Co, the issues stemmed from separate instances of failings in Barclays’ financial crime risk management. One related to due diligence shortcomings around WealthTek, and the other involved weaknesses in ongoing monitoring and risk assessment concerning Stunt & Co. The issues weren’t solely about initial onboarding checks; they were also about:

• How quickly emerging risks were detected
• How effectively were red flags escalated
• How clearly monitoring tools supported decision-making

These are challenges familiar to every compliance team. In fast-moving environments, it’s easy for warning signs to go unnoticed, especially when systems are siloed, updates are manual, or teams lack timely insight into changes in client risk profiles.

Why ongoing monitoring matters more than ever

The FCA’s message is clear: financial institutions are expected to monitor relationships continuously, not just during onboarding.

For many compliance teams, that means reassessing whether existing systems and processes are equipped to catch emerging risks as they develop, not just after the fact.

At Amiqus, we support organisations in this effort by providing tools that help firms align with FCA’s AML guidance and meet evolving regulatory expectations. Our platform helps teams to:

• Automatically re-screen clients against updated sanctions and watchlists
• Stay ahead of reputational risk through adverse media monitoring
• Detect changes in client behaviour, relationships or transactional patterns
• Reduce manual workload so teams can focus on investigation and escalation

These tools are designed to complement your existing processes, not replace sound judgment, but they can make it easier to spot red flags earlier, take action sooner, and build greater confidence in your AML controls.

Moving forward: A call for proactive controls

Barclays has stated that it cooperated fully with the FCA and has since strengthened its financial crime controls. This is an important reminder: even the most established institutions are constantly evolving their AML frameworks, and we all should be.

At Amiqus, we work with financial institutions committed to building stronger, smarter defences against financial crime. Not because regulators are watching, but because the risks are real.

Talk to us about how our platform can keep you a step ahead of risk.