In Brief: United of Tex. Gets Cease-and-Desist

United Central Bank in Garland, Tex., has been ordered by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas to improve controls for monitoring suspicious customer activity.

United Central president Keith Ward said the order, made public last week, was issued after regulators determined that the company had violated the Bank Secrecy Act. Mr. Ward would not say how it ran afoul of the act. The Fed does not comment on enforcement orders.

The order says $269 million-asset United must give the Fed a list of the types of customers it believes pose a heighten risk of illicit activity; report suspicious activity; establish controls for check kiting; and submit a compliance program detailing monitoring procedures for all types of transactions.

Mr. Ward said United Central has already put many of these procedures in place and that his company had remedied the problems well before the Fed drew up the cease-and-desist order.

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