NatWest has been dragged into a massive money laundering scandal involving hundreds of millions of pounds deposited in banknotes. In a move that stunned the City, regulators launched criminal proceedings against the High Street bank and accused it of failing to scrutinise a string of suspicious payments by a business customer. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the customer, which it did not name but is understood to be Bradford-based jewellery wholesaler Fowler Oldfield, paid £365m into its Natwest account over a five-year period. Around £264million of that was deposited in cash in increasingly large sums. In a move that stunned the City, regulators launched criminal proceedings against Natwest and accused it of failing to scrutinise a string of suspicious payments by a business customer