News
Japanese Regulator Orders Bank of Tokyo to Improve AML Programs
By Brian Monroe
printThe Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ was ordered by Japan's financial regulator Monday to improve its anti-money laundering programs and retool the way it handles complaints in its mutual fund operations. The Financial Services Agency, noting in two actions that the bank may have failed to follow an AML-related action issued by U.S. regulators, ordered Bank of Tokyo to improve its New York branch's policies for identifying politically exposed persons, correspondent accountholders and other high-risk customers, including those who conduct frequent wire transactions. The two FSA enforcement actions are the fourth and fifth such orders against the bank, Japan's largest, in...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
In the wake of two state-issued fines that totaled over $500 million dollars, several foreign banks with chartered branches in New York are considering moving elsewhere, say sources with knowledge of the matter.
New York's financial regulator Thursday said a Japanese bank must pay $250 million for breaking a state recordkeeping law-the second time the agency has used the rule against sanctions violators.
The U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions enforcement agency fined a Japanese bank nearly $8.6 million Wednesday for violating sanctions against Iran, Sudan, Myanmar, Cuba and weapons proliferators.
Japan's financial regulator ordered Citibank's Japanese arm to suspend its retail sales operations for a month over anti-money laundering deficiencies, marking the second high-profile enforcement action against the bank.
Japanese laws to combat money laundering and terrorist financing fall short in over half of the 49 international standards set by an influential intergovernmental watchdog.
Facing possible regulatory sanctions for continued compliance deficiencies, Union Bank of California has created the new position of chief risk officer responsible for overseeing anti-money laundering and risk compliance reporting companywide.
The bank, a subsidiary of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said it set aside $10 million after the OCC disclosed that it plans to issue a civil money penalty and cease and desist order against the institution.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the New York State Banking Department reprimanded the Bank of Tokyo's Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Company on Monday for "unsafe and unsound" practices in its New York branch.