Money laundering

Since the pandemic, financial scams have surged dramatically. The solutions to rampant fraud are clear; what's missing is the urgency.

Vulnerabilities related to environmental, social and governance issues have become a serious threat vector when it comes to money laundering. Banks must recognize the danger and adapt their systems accordingly.

At TD Bank and some other financial institutions accused of aiding and abetting money laundering, AML and branch employees have colluded and even joked about it in instant messages. Technology is part of the answer to detecting and preventing this.

These banks are expected to draw regulatory scrutiny in the coming year. 

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.

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.