Between June 2016 and December 2020, the bank failed to appropriately monitor more than 60 million transactions totaling more than £51 billion for possible money laundering concerns.

When Metro automated its transaction monitoring system in June 2016, the problems started. Transactions made on the day an account was established, as well as all future transactions until the account records were updated, were regrettably ignored due to a significant flaw in the data input procedure.

Junior employees complained in 2017 and 2018 that certain transaction data was not being tracked, but the problems were not recognized or adequately fixed at the time.

A remedy wasn't put into place until July 2019. However, until December 2020—more than four years after the system's first deployment—Metro was unable to put in place a dependable method to guarantee that all pertinent transactions were constantly supplied into the monitoring system.

The seriousness of these oversights was highlighted by Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, who said, "Metro's shortcomings risked a gap being left in our defense against the criminal misuse of our financial system." Those shortcomings persisted for much too long.

Metro has put procedures in place to investigate and fix the problems found after discovering the shortcomings in April 2019. The FCA nevertheless keeps a close eye on businesses to make sure they have strong controls and procedures in place to handle the risks of financial crime.