Citi Gets $136M Butt-Kick

citigroup

The compliance drama-rama at Citigroup continues! Regulators just imposed another $136 million in new monetary penalties for the bank’s failure to complete compliance and risk management improvements required by a previous consent order from 2020, which had imposed a $400 million penalty of its own. So that’s more than half a billion dollars Citigroup is…

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City National, Part II: Customer Due Diligence

City National

Today let’s return to that enforcement action against City National Bank, issued by federal banking regulators last week for City National’s systemic risk management shortcomings. We originally looked at the settlement order’s advice on risk assessments; next up is another common compliance challenge: customer due diligence. The recap here is that the Office of the…

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City National’s Lessons on Risk Assessment

City National

We have another meaty enforcement action from the banking world today, a $65 million civil penalty against City National Bank for systemic failures of corporate governance, risk management, and internal controls. The case includes a laundry list of compliance reforms the bank needs to implement, with plenty of lessons for the compliance profession as a…

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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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Bank Regulator Props Up Energy Lending

rule

The Trump Administration is trying to push through a rule that would neuter banks’ ability to consider ethics and reputation issues when offering services — a kiss to the oil & gas industry, and one that would undermine banks’ ability to consider social and ethical factors when evaluating business relationships. The Office of the Comptroller…

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