Guernsey-based Utmost Worldwide has been fined £1.96m by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC), the island’s regulator, for underestimating its financial crime risk.
Following its judgment, issued on March 12 2026, the regulator said it was the biggest fine it has ever issued and relates to Utmost’s use of unregulated brokers in high risk regions like South and Central America.
The fine relates to historic cases concerning a legacy book of policies which were onboarded prior to Utmost’s ownership in 2019 of the Utmost Worldwide business in Guernsey.
The Commission found that between 2015-2025, the Guernsey branch of Utmost Worldwide “seriously and systematically underestimated the degree of financial crime” related to its life assurance business, particularly relating to its use of unregulated brokers in high risk regions “with a weak financial crime infrastructure” like South and Central America, which it said present a “higher money laundering risk”.
As part of an investigation launched in 2023, the GFSC found that at one point, Utmost Worldwide’s Guernsey business had around 22,500 high-risk clients, but based on its methodology would review less than 3.50% of those on an annual basis, and it found that those reviews which did take place were “ineffective” due to a lack of customer contact.
Utmost Worldwide also became aware in 2014 that one of its third-party brokers in South and Central America had identified some employees were fraudulently altering client due diligence documents for approximately 1,900 of Utmost’s clients, but the GFSC found Utmost “failed to remediate this serious matter expeditiously”, with around 200 clients still un-remediated 10 years later.
The firm fell short in several other anti-money laundering measures, including issues with its application of the reasonable measures needed to establish both source of wealth and source of funds, meaning that it was “often not aware as to whether the provenance of the funds being received by the Licensee for premium payments had changed”.
Concluding its investigation, the regulator found James Watchhorn, money laundering reporting officer at the firm, had “failed to, at all times, consider the implications of money laundering red flags and act in accordance with the competence and diligence expected of a deputy money laundering reporting officer.
The Commission said it anticipates the level of remediation required “may take a considerable period of time to complete”, but stressed that the company and Mr Watchhorn assisted the regulator “fully during the investigation and settled at the earliest opportunity”. There have been no allegations of money laundering or terrorist financing by the Commission.
It is understood that Utmost Worldwide in Guernsey has since strengthened its frameworks and guidance to align with international best practice, has been undertaking ongoing enhancement of its screening and monitoring systems, and has appointed new senior leadership and expanded its compliance and financial crime capabilities. Utmost Worldwide accounts for 2% of the total overall Utmost Group AUA.
Utmost declined to comment further.
