Small Illinois credit union fined over BSA compliance

Illinois regulators fined SmartChoice Credit Union in Spring Valley, Ill., for failing to fix deficiencies related to compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act discovered during an exam in 2014.

The institution, which has $919,000 in assets, must pay a $1,000 fine, according to a civil penalty order dated Sept. 16.

SmartChoice was issued a document of resolution during an exam on Dec. 31, 2014 that found required searches from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network were not done. The document of resolution noted that the credit union must search for accounts under a named suspect and any transactions that involved a named suspect.

A follow-up in April 2015 and a full exam on Dec. 31, 2015 revealed the credit union hadn’t resolved the issue, according to the civil penalty order.

An examiner found evidence that in a 2018 FinCEN activity report that the credit union still was not downloading the reports from FinCEN to complete a search.

The Division of Financial Institutions at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation determined that SmartChoice failed to comply and remedy the situation.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Penalties and fines Financial crimes AML FinCEN Illinois
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER