Wells Fargo, one of the ‘big four’ of US banking and by extension a prominent multinational player, has signed a formal agreement with a regulator around anti-money laundering (AML).
The bank has agreed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that it will take ‘comprehensive corrective actions’ to improve its AML and financial crime mismanagement practices.
Specific areas earmarked by the OCC for improvement are suspicious activity and currency transaction reporting, along with customer due diligence. Wells Fargo’s customer identification and beneficial ownership programmes were also criticised.
The OCC is an independent agency of the US Treasury tasked with catering, regulating and supervising national banks. It is one of the most important regulators the US banking sector deals with, alongside the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Part of the OCC’s remit includes enforcement of the Bank Secrecy Act, US AML and its sanctions compliance programmes. Wells Fargo has been tasked with enhancing AML standards in accordance with these regulations.
Wells Fargo further stated that its programme for assessing AML and sanctions risks of new offerings will need to be accepted by the OCC. The bank will also have to give the OCC notice before expanding certain offerings in this field.
A statement issued by the bank read: “We have been working to address a substantial portion of what’s required in the formal agreement, and we are committed to completing the work with the same sense of urgency as our other regulatory commitments.”
Wells Fargo is one of the big four US banks, alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup, a high-ranking firm on the Fortune 500 and a multinational active across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
A regulatory requirement for the bank to improve its AML policies shows that firms of various sizes are at risk of non-compliance with AML standards. These actions do not just occur in finance and banking, however. Last week, a large Las Vegas casino settled a case with US law enforcement around allegations of unlicensed money transmitting.
