ARTICLE II
COMPTROLLER’S FINDINGS
The Comptroller finds, and the Bank neither admits nor denies, the following:
(1) The Bank failed to develop and provide for the continued administration of a BSA/AML Program reasonably designed to assure and monitor compliance with the BSA and its implementing regulations, in violation of 12 C.F.R. § 21.21. Deficiencies in the Bank’s BSA/AML Program included deficiencies related to: internal controls and risk management practices; risk assessments; customer due diligence; customer risk ratings; suspicious activity identification, evaluation, and reporting; governance; staffing; independent testing; and training, among others.
(2) The Bank had significant, long-standing, systemic breakdowns in its transaction monitoring program.
(3) Since at least 2020, the Bank processed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions with clear indicia of highly suspicious activity, creating a potential for significant money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illicit financial transactions. The Bank repeatedly failed to take appropriate and timely corrective action to address the highly suspicious activity and failed to properly emphasize BSA/AML compliance.
(4) The Bank had a systemic breakdown in its policies, procedures, and processes to identify and report suspicious activity, and a pattern or practice of noncompliance with the SAR filing requirement, resulting in numerous violations of 12 C.F.R. § 21.11 (suspicious activity report violations).
(5) The Bank violated 31 C.F.R. § 1010.312 (currency transaction report violations) on numerous occasions.
(6) The Bank failed to implement appropriate risk-based procedures for conducting ongoing customer due diligence in violation of 31 C.F.R. § 1020.210(a)(2)(v).
(7) The Bank recklessly engaged in unsafe or unsound practices related to the Bank’s BSA/AML Program.
(8) The Bank’s violations and recklessly unsafe or unsound practices were part of a pattern, and caused and are likely to cause more than a minimal loss to the Bank.
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