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OCC Soundness Proposal Would Mean Quicker Fines for AML Violations

By Colby Adams and Brian Monroe

The U.S. Treasury Department can expedite civil monetary penalties against financial institutions that violate the Bank Secrecy Act and other rules tied to safety and soundness, under guidelines proposed Thursday. The planned guidance by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which formalizes the agency's "heightened expectations" of how banks manage risk following the 2008 economic downturn, would apply to any insured national bank, federal savings bank and federal branch of a foreign bank with average consolidated assets of $50 billion or more. Under the proposal, the financial institutions would have to ensure the independence of at least...

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