London / Tasmania — Sunday, December 14, 2025 — Two very different events are dominating headlines today: in the UK, Nationwide Building Society is facing a £44 million Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) penalty tied to historic anti-financial-crime control weaknesses; in Tasmania, wild winds and severe weather have contributed to widespread hazards and major power disruptions along the coast, affecting thousands of homes. 1
Both stories, while worlds apart, hinge on the same underlying question: how well do critical systems hold up under pressure—whether that pressure is fraud risk, or extreme weather?
Nationwide’s £44m FCA fine: what happened and why it matters
The UK’s financial watchdog, the FCA, has fined Nationwide Building Society £44 million for what it described as inadequate anti-financial-crime systems and controls over a period spanning October 2016 to July 2021. 1
According to the regulator, Nationwide’s controls were ineffective in two crucial areas:
- Keeping customer due diligence and risk assessments up to date
- Monitoring transactions on personal current accounts 1
The FCA also said Nationwide was aware that some personal current accounts were being used for business activity (in breach of Nationwide’s terms), at a time when the building society did not offer business current accounts—meaning it lacked the tailored processes needed to manage the financial-crime and money-laundering risks linked to business transactions. 1
The Covid furlough fraud case at the centre of the FCA action
The FCA highlighted one case it called “serious,” where Nationwide allegedly missed repeated opportunities to identify suspicious activity connected to fraudulent Covid furlough payments.
The watchdog says the customer received:
- 24 fraudulent payments totalling £27.3 million over 13 months
- Including £26.01 million deposited over just 8 days
- HMRC recovered £26.5 million, but around £800,000 remains unrecovered 1
That unrecovered sum is central to why the case has resonated: the FCA’s position is that missed warning signs contributed to real-world consequences, leaving taxpayers short. 2
The fine total, the discount, and the legal basis
While the headline number is £44m, the FCA says Nationwide’s penalty would have been £62,969,297, but was reduced through a 30% discount after Nationwide agreed to resolve the matter under the FCA’s settlement process—bringing the final penalty to £44,078,500. 1
In the FCA’s published Final Notice, the regulator states it imposed the £44,078,500 penalty for a breach of Principle 3, alongside associated breaches of SYSC rules 6.1.1R and 6.3.1R. 3
The FCA also underscored that financial crime enforcement remains active across the sector, noting that since 2021 it has imposed 13 fines totaling more than £300 million on banks for anti-money laundering systems and controls failings. 1
Nationwide’s response: “historical weaknesses” and post-2021 investment
Nationwide has responded by stressing that the issues relate to controls in place before July 2021, saying it identified the issues through internal reviews, voluntarily reported them, and cooperated fully with the investigation.
In a statement, Nationwide said it is “sorry” its controls “fell below the high standards” it expects. 4
The FCA, for its part, acknowledges that Nationwide began improvements and later launched a large-scale financial crime transformation programme in July 2021, after failing to address earlier weaknesses “in a timely manner.” 1
Tasmania coast power outage: severe winds bring down trees and power lines
On the other side of the world today, Tasmania is dealing with damaging winds and hazardous conditions that have forced emergency responses and contributed to widespread disruptions, including coastal power outages affecting thousands of homes. 5
A report published Sunday afternoon said police were responding to an increase in incidents across north-west Tasmania, with warnings to motorists about fallen trees and hazards on rural roads. 6
What the weather data shows today
Local reporting cited wind gusts exceeding 80 km/h at multiple north-west locations, with significantly stronger gusts recorded elsewhere in the state overnight and into the morning as a cold front crossed Tasmania. 6
Meanwhile, the ABC’s emergency feed (sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology) carried an active Gale Force Wind Warning for Sunday, December 14, across multiple Tasmanian coastal regions and waters. 7
How many homes were affected — and where
A coastal outage report today said more than 2,000 TasNetworks customers were without power, with impacted localities including parts of the north-west coast region (the report listed multiple affected areas). 5
Restoration updates: what TasNetworks’ outage map shows now
By the time of checking TasNetworks’ official outage page today, the utility’s outage map page indicated “There are currently no power outages.” The same page notes that outage information may not be displayed in real time and that small outages may not appear on the map. 8
For residents, the key practical takeaway is that conditions can evolve quickly during wind events: outages may be localized, restored, and then recur if fresh damage occurs—especially where trees and debris continue to fall. 6
Why these two stories are grabbing attention on Dec. 14
It’s tempting to treat these as unrelated headlines—a UK banking enforcement case and an Australian weather-driven blackout—but they share a common thread that resonates with readers:
- In the UK case, the FCA is effectively arguing that controls must match the real risk, even when products (like personal accounts) are used in ways the institution didn’t originally design for. 1
- In Tasmania, today’s outages are another reminder that physical infrastructure is only as resilient as its ability to withstand increasingly volatile conditions, and that communication and restoration systems matter as much as hardware when households lose power. 6
What to watch next
Next steps in the Nationwide FCA fine story
- Whether the FCA’s action triggers wider scrutiny of how personal accounts are monitored for business-like activity, particularly in mutuals and retail lenders. 1
- How Nationwide continues to evidence the progress of its post-2021 transformation programme and whether other institutions face similar enforcement outcomes. 1
