InfoBytes Blog
Federal Reserve fines Taiwanese bank $29 million for anti-money laundering compliance deficiencies
On January 17, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) ordered a Taiwanese bank to pay a $29 million penalty in connection with alleged Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) violations. According to the Fed’s Order, examinations conducted in 2016 identified “significant deficiencies” in three of the bank’s U.S. branches’ BSA/AML compliance and risk management controls. In addition to assessing a penalty, the Order required the bank and its New York, Chicago, and San Jose branches to, among other things, (i) submit a written plan from the board of directors for improving senior management oversight, including building a sustainable governance framework for BSA/AML compliance; (ii) submit compliance plans for enhanced internal controls, independent testing, risk assessment, and employee training; (iii) submit a revised program designed to conduct customer due diligence; (iv) ensure timely, accurate, and complete suspicious activity monitoring and reporting; (v) engage an independent third-party to review the identification and reporting of suspicious activity “involving high risk customers or transactions”; (vi) comply with Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations; and (vii) submit periodic progress reports to the branches’ applicable Federal Reserve Banks detailing actions taken to comply with the provisions of the order.