Money laundering

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.

TD Bank's guilty plea to extensive money-laundering charges last week did not include any criminal charges against individual bank executives. That absence has critics fuming, but experts say bringing charges against individuals isn't so easy.

For more than a decade, the bank allowed billions of dollars from illicit activities to flow through the U.S. financial system unchecked. Some are wondering why examiners didn't put a stop to it sooner.

Regulators' asset cap on TD Bank for money-laundering violations has cemented the enforcement tool as a supreme cudgel to rein in problem banks, while other tools devised in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis gather dust.

The Canadian bank is indefinitely prohibited from growing assets at its two U.S. subsidiaries as the result of a sweeping settlement over money-laundering violations. While only the second imposition of such a penalty ever, experts say it will not be the last.

The sweeping enforcement actions will be a watershed event for TD Bank's U.S. subsidiary, which had previously been a promising growth engine.

Regulators have never held a hearing on whether to revoke the charter of a bank convicted of a money-laundering-related violation. As TD Bank nears a "global resolution" in connection with its compliance failures, it's unlikely to buck the trend.

The Federal Reserve has lifted a 2013 order relating to anti-money-laundering compliance issues, including in the megabank's now-defunct Banamex USA unit.

An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would expand access to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's beneficial ownership database. That would allow financial firms to cut off drug traffickers' financing.

A new OCC action over the megabank's anti-money-laundering guardrails, which follows news of seemingly more severe lapses at TD Bank, is raising concerns that a broader crackdown is at hand.

The penalty by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a major setback for the San Francisco bank, which was freed from a separate anti-money-laundering order in 2021. Its stock price fell sharply after the news broke.

New rules from Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will mandate reporting for non-financed real estate transfers and expand anti-money-laundering requirements for investment advisors.

The New York State Department of Financial Services issued a consent order against Finland-based Nordea Bank, citing deficiencies related to the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering requirements.

The Biden Administration firmly rejects proposed cuts to key financial oversight and consumer protection agencies in the Republican-backed financial services appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025.

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a proposal mandating banks enhance their anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing programs, including measures to address fentanyl trafficking and Russian money laundering.

The co-funder and CEO of Minerva, a regulation technology platform, is one of American Banker's 2024 Most Influential Women in Fintech.

For a country that relies on the energy and drive of immigrants to the extent that the U.S. does, it's surprisingly hard for them to get bank accounts. It's time to reassess what we mean by money-laundering risks.

In this month's roundup of top banking news: a Supreme Court ruling on CFPB funding, TD Bank's money laundering woes, an FDIC workplace probe reveals a culture of misconduct and more.

Executives at the Toronto-based bank said last year that they planned to add 150 branches in the United States. But when pressed on Thursday, they could not say how much they'll scale back their ambitions due to investigations over TD's anti-money laundering practices.