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OTS Cites Community Bank for AML Weaknesses

By Brian Monroe

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) cited a 120-year-old community bank for significant weaknesses in its anti-money laundering controls and ordered it to strengthen its policies within two months. Peoples Federal Savings Bank and Loan Association failed to identify and report structured transactions and other suspicious activities, the OTS said in a Feb. 8 cease-and-desist order. The federal regulator also found flaws in the independent review component of Peoples Federal's Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance program. The OTS ordered the bank to improve its employee training, suspicious activity reporting policies and customer identification procedures. The bank, founded...

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