Judge Blasts Ex-Wells Fargo Execs

wells fargo

An administrative law judge has affirmed that three former audit and risk management executives at Wells Fargo should face millions in penalties for their sloppy oversight during the bank’s fake-account scandal in the 2010s. The judge, assigned to the Office of Financial Institution Adjudication, issued his ruling on Wednesday after lengthy proceedings to investigate the…

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‘Climate Risk Compliance’ Coming for Banks

climate

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…

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Big Wall Street Settlement Coming Soon

wall street

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…

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USAA, Part III: Better Risk Assessments 

USAA

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…

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USAA, Part II: Staffing Levels and SARs

USAA

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,…

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USAA Settlement: Board-Level Reforms

USAA

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…

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OCC Nudges Banks on Climate Change

climate

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.…

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Credit Suisse and Risk Oversight Pains

Credit Suisse

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…

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India Moves to Bolster Bank CCOs

India

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,…

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Regulators Talk PEPs, Due Diligence

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…

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