Financial crimes

The tiny community bank handled hundreds of millions of bulk cash shipments from Mexico without red-flagging any of them, the agency said. The bank has filed a motion to dismiss.

Banks such as TD, Wells Fargo and Bank of America drew attention this year for money-laundering issues. That's one of several top regulatory news items in 2024.

TD Bank Group's money-laundering-related crimes have sparked questions of how banks should be penalized for moving dirty money. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the FDIC should do more.

Members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board of directors Tuesday debated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra's proposal limiting capital distributions system-wide during times of stress, as well as penalties for institutions caught engaging in money laundering.

After the Toronto-based bank faced record penalties in the U.S., it made new disclosures about its anti-money-laundering compliance obligations in Canada, where critics say regulators have been too lax.

Leonardo Ayala, who was a retail banker at a TD branch in Florida, faces criminal charges in connection with money-laundering activities.

The Toronto-based bank suspended its medium-term growth targets and announced a full-scale review of its strategies following historic anti-money-laundering failures.

A federal judge in Texas has blocked the enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act, a key U.S. anti-money-laundering law that would require companies to report ownership details by January.

Canada's banking regulator is beefing up its rules on corporate culture, saying that it expects executives and boards to be accountable.

The Federal Reserve issued an enforcement action against the former head of Heartland Tri-State Bank, who embezzled millions of dollars after falling victim to a crypto scam.

Robert Thompson was charged with using nonpublic information about New York Community Bank and Capital One to execute stock trades. His guilty plea could come with up to 25 years behind bars.

Small Business Bank in Lennox, Kansas received another cease-and-desist order from the Federal Reserve for failing to comply with anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act requirements for the second time in 14 months.

In its semiannual supervision and regulation report, the Federal Reserve flagged climbing loan delinquencies and a rising number of large bank citations for governance and controls.

The bank's U.S. operations will be closely monitored during a yearslong probationary period, during which any sign of backsliding could trigger swift punitive action.

Daria Sewell pleaded not guilty to possessing customers' personally identifiable information. The case adds to the Canadian bank's anti-money-laundering woes.

The plea agreement, which includes a fine of more than $1.4 billion, penalizes TD for systemic money laundering violations. "We have the ability to profit, and we should be able to profit, but not at the expense of the law," said U.S. District Judge Esther Salas.

An uptick in fines associated with anti-money-laundering failures demonstrates that U.S. banks still have much work to do in terms of optimizing their internal systems to identify and stop the flow of dirty money.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a letter that the Department of Justice intentionally avoided threatening TD Bank's charter to operate. The Massachusetts Democrat also pressed the agency to prosecute bank executives.

The megabank disclosed that regulators are looking at its anti-money-laundering and sanctions compliance. Wells Fargo was recently hit with an enforcement action over similar matters.

The supposed glitch was simply check fraud. The bank is suing four people who allegedly took as much as $290,000 from the bank as part of the scheme.