Danske Bank Pays $2.4B on AML Failures

Danske

Danske Bank, the Danish bank now infamous for allowing one of the largest money laundering schemes in history during the 2000s and 2010s, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in U.S. federal court today and agreed to pay more than $2 billion in criminal penalties and other monetary fines. Danske will pay $2.06 billion in criminal…

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FinCEN Offers Red Flags on Russia

Today we return to risks arising from the Ukraine crisis, because FinCEN has just published an alert warning financial firms to watch for transactions that might actually be Russians trying to avoid Western sanctions — including a list of red flags that AML compliance functions should keep on the radar screen. FinCEN published the 10-page…

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Robinhood, Part II: Due Diligence Fails

robinhood

Today I want to return to FINRA’s enforcement action against Robinhood, that online stock trading app with the terrible track record at customer due diligence and risk profiling. Even though the case involves the somewhat rarified compliance rules for broker-dealer firms, there’s a lot here that speaks to technology and due diligence challenges overall. Robinhood,…

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Capital One Whacked on AML Failures

Talk about mistakes that come back to haunt you: Capital One just agreed to pay a $390 million penalty for anti-money laundering compliance failures in a check-cashing unit the bank hasn’t even owned for seven years.  The settlement was announced by FinCEN last Friday. The 22-page statement of facts is a tale of poor risk…

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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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Deutsche Bank’s Many Epstein Failures

Deutsche Bank

New York banking regulators hit Deutsche Bank with a $150 million penalty Tuesday for its business dealings with notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and painted a damning picture of compliance failures that went on for years at the bank while it reaped millions from such a lucrative customer.  The New York Department of Financial Services…

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