U.S. Bank NA paying $598M for BSA/AML failings

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today announced a $75 million civil money penalty against U.S. Bank National Association of Cincinnati, Ohio, for deficiencies in the bank’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program. These deficiencies were the subject of the OCC’s 2015 consent order against the bank.

In its 2015 consent order, the OCC cited the bank for the failure to adopt and implement a compliance program that adequately covered the required BSA/AML program elements, in violation of 12 C.F.R. § 21.21, because of an inadequate system of internal controls, ineffective independent testing, and inadequate training. The bank had systemic deficiencies in its transaction monitoring systems, which resulted in monitoring gaps and a significant amount of unreported suspicious activity. The bank conducted a look-back required by the 2015 consent order and, as a result, had to file additional Suspicious Activity Reports, which constituted additional violations of 12 C.F.R. § 21.11.

The OCC action was taken in coordination with concurrent actions by the Department of Justice, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The bank paid the assessed penalty to the U.S. Treasury.

FinCEN announced its assessment of a $185 million civil money penalty, which FinCEN agreed to consider satisfied by payment of $70 million to the Treasury Department, and payment of a $528 million forfeiture under a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. [Editor's note:FinCEN's assessment order provides the most detailed description of the failings of the bank's program.]

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced today it had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. Bank, N.A., under which prosecution of a criminal complaint against the bank will be deferred for two years and the bank will forfeit $528 million, less the $75 million paid under the OCC order.

In a related enforcement action against the bank's parent company, U.S. Bancorp, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System assessed an additional $15 million penalty.