Swiss bank UBS, fined by British authorities for allowing unauthorised transactions to be carried out on customer accounts, said Friday it had "taken full remedial steps" to address the problem.
"UBS deeply regrets this incident and, having fully co-operated with the FSA's (Financial Services Authority) investigation, we are now pleased that this matter has been settled so that we can move forward," the bank said in a statement.
"This sanction arises from control failings within our UK International Wealth Management business, dating back to 2007, as identified in the FSA's Final Notice and in respect of which UBS has already taken full remedial steps," it added.
Britain's Financial Services Authority on Thursday slapped a fine of 8.0 million pounds (8.9 million euros, 13.2 million dollars) on UBS for systems and controls failures that allowed "four employees to carry out unauthorised transactions involving customer money on at least 39 accounts."
"Upon further investigation, it was discovered that UBS employees had taken part in the trading of foreign exchange and precious metals using customer money without authorisation and allocated losses to customers' accounts," said the FSA.
"An internal UBS investigation estimated that as many as 50 unauthorised transactions a day were taking place at the operation's peak," it added.
The fine was the third largest ever levied by the British financial regulator and would have reached 10 million pounds if UBS had not agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation.
The FSA also said UBS had paid compensation amounting to more than 42 million dollars as "redress for its customers' losses."
