InfoBytes Blog
Bank fined $140 million for BSA/AML compliance failures
On March 17, FinCEN announced a $140 million civil money penalty against a federal savings bank for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its implementing regulations from at least January 2016 through April 2021 by allegedly failing to implement and maintain an effective, reasonably designed anti-money laundering (AML) program. According to FinCEN, the bank “also admitted that it willfully failed to accurately and timely report thousands of suspicious transactions to FinCEN involving suspicious financial activity by its customers, including customers using personal accounts for apparent criminal activity.” The consent order further noted that in 2017, the OCC informed the bank that its AML program failed to meet all the requirements of the agency’s regulations. The bank agreed to overhaul its AML program but, according to the order, the bank has not yet met all of the terms of its commitments to address the deficiencies. FinCEN emphasized that the bank’s violations resulted “in millions of dollars in suspicious transactions flowing through the U.S. financial system without appropriate reporting,” and stressed “that growth and compliance must be paired, and AML program deficiencies, especially deficiencies identified by federal regulators, must be promptly and effectively addressed.”
The same day, the OCC announced a $60 million penalty against the bank for related violations resulting from the separate but coordinated investigation with FinCEN. Among other things, the consent order identified several deficiencies related to inadequate internal controls and risk management practices, suspicious activity identification, staffing, training, and third-party risk management. FinCEN’s announcement noted that “[a]s many of the facts and circumstances underlying the OCC’s civil penalty also form the basis of FinCEN’s Consent Order, FinCEN agreed to credit the $60 million civil penalty imposed by the OCC,” adding that, combined, the bank “will pay a total of $140 million to the U.S. Treasury for its violations, with $80 million representing FinCEN’s penalty and $60 million representing the OCC’s penalty.”