Global KYB Failures Cost Firms £1.23bn in H1 2025 as Audit Gaps Persist

Global organisations faced £1.23 billion in KYC/AML penalties in the first half of 2025, with TD Bank's £3 billion fine serving as a prominent example of systemic compliance failure. Regulators found that TD Bank's fragmented KYB processes could not coherently reconstruct beneficial ownership data when questioned, despite the information existing within the organisation. Analysis of 2025 penalties reveals a consistent pattern: firms either collected the wrong data, failed to verify it properly, or could not retrieve it on demand. Across major frameworks including EU AMLD5/6, the US Corporate Transparency Act, and UK Money Laundering Regulations 2017, compliance obligations converge on four pillars — customer identification, due diligence, sanctions screening, and audit-ready recordkeeping. Experts warn that treating KYB as a series of disconnected checks rather than one coherent, auditable system is the root cause of most implementation failures.