Posts Tagged ‘banking’
‘Climate Risk Compliance’ Coming for Banks
It’s a double shot of news today for regulatory compliance officers in the banking world: two major regulators promising a more rigorous review of climate risks within the coming year. Michael Hsu, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Michael Barr, vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve, both gave…
Read MoreBig Wall Street Settlement Coming Soon
Heads up, compliance officers! Word on the street is that regulators are poised to announce a billion-dollar settlement with numerous Wall Street banks for employees’ improper use of messaging apps and associated record-keeping failures, a case bound to give us more clues about the enforcement appetite among the SEC and other agencies these days. The…
Read MoreUSAA, Part III: Better Risk Assessments
Today we have one more look at that enforcement action banking regulators took against USAA last month, over the bank’s slow pace of compliance improvements. We’ve already reviewed changes to board oversight and compliance staffing levels that USAA needs to make. Next up: risk assessments. Again, a quick recap. FinCEN and the Office of the…
Read MoreUSAA, Part II: Staffing Levels and SARs
Today I want to circle back to that civil settlement that banking regulators struck with USAA last month, where they fined USAA a total of $140 million and imposed a raft of compliance program improvements that USAA needs to make double-quick. What do those demands tell us about how corporate compliance programs should operate? First,…
Read MoreUSAA Settlement: Board-Level Reforms
Before we forget, compliance professionals should take a look at the enforcement action banking regulators imposed on USAA last week. It’s a fascinating look at how regulators are trying to pressure corporate boards and senior executives to take compliance risks more seriously. What happened? The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and FinCEN hit…
Read MoreOCC Nudges Banks on Climate Change
One of the country’s top banking regulators has outlined five questions that large banks’ boards should be asking about climate change, with a notable nudge that the banks’ management teams “hopefully should be able to answer these questions with greater accuracy and confidence” within 12 months. In other words, get on with things, banking industry.…
Read MoreCredit Suisse and Risk Oversight Pains
Today in news that should surprise nobody: Credit Suisse is mulling whether to remove its chief risk and compliance officer, after months of the Swiss bank stumbling from one surprise scandal to another. The executive in question, Lara Warner, has been in that combined risk and compliance role since Credit Suisse consolidated the two functions…
Read MoreIndia Moves to Bolster Bank CCOs
Regulators in India have adopted exhausting new criteria for the appointment of chief compliance officers in the banking sector there, and banks in that country have six months to confirm that their CCOs fit the profile or find a new one. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank and primary banking regulator,…
Read MoreRegulators Talk PEPs, Due Diligence
Banking regulators have published fresh guidance about how financial firms should perform due diligence on “politically exposed persons” — stressing that you don’t need to take extra steps simply because a customer is a PEP, although banks do need to understand the higher corruption risks PEPs can pose. The guidance is a joint statement from…
Read MoreReport Flags ‘Derisking Risk’ in Banking Sector
A new report from the Government Accountability Office says tough AML compliance obligations are contributing to a “derisking” wave in banks along the U.S.-Mexico border, which are closing branches and filing far more suspicious activity reports than in other parts of the country. The report examined 406 banks across the United States, including 115 along…
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