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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

OCC Announces Recent Enforcement Actions and Terminations

Federal Issues OCC Enforcement Bank Secrecy Act Anti-Money Laundering Compliance SARs

Federal Issues

On August 18, the OCC released a list of new enforcement actions taken against national banks, federal savings associations, and institution-affiliated parties as well as a list of existing enforcement actions that were terminated recently. The actions include cease and desist orders, civil money penalties, removal/prohibition orders and restitution orders.

Cease and Desist Order. On July 18, the OCC issued a consent order against a Florida-based bank for deficiencies related to its Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) rules and regulations. The consent order, among other things, requires the bank to: (i) appoint a compliance committee responsible for ensuring the bank adheres to the order; (ii) appoint a BSA officer who will “ensure compliance with the requirements of the [BSA] . . . and regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)”; (iii) acquire an independent third-party consultant to conduct a formal written assessment of the bank’s BSA oversight infrastructure to determine BSA/Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance; (iv) review and update a comprehensive BSA/AML compliance action plan and monitoring system, including implementing processes to timely identify and analyze suspicious activity and file suspicious activity reports (SARs); (v) create a comprehensive training program for “appropriate operational and supervisory personnel to ensure their awareness of their specific assigned responsibilities for compliance with” the BSA; (vi) develop policies and procedures related to the collection of customer due diligence and enhanced due diligence; (vii) monitor accounts for “high-risk customers/transactions”; (viii) implement an independent BSA/AML audit program and written risk assessment program; and (ix) conduct a “Look-Back” plan to determine whether suspicious activity was timely identified and reported by the bank and whether additional SARs should be filed for unreported suspicious activity. The bank, while agreeing to the terms of the consent order, has not admitted or denied any wrongdoing.