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OTS Issues Two Cease and Desist Orders for Poor Suspicious Activity Reporting

By Brian Monroe

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision dinged two financial institutions Wednesday for sloppy suspicious activity report filings, ordering one to strengthen a host of additional anti-money laundering deficiencies. The agency ordered New York-based First Federal Savings of Middletown, which has two branches and less than $169 million in total assets, to bolster a wide swath of its Bank Secrecy Act program by November, according to a 16-page cease-and-desist order that went into effect Friday. Sykesville, Md.-based Sykesville Federal Savings Association must improve a number of practices unrelated to anti-money laundering (AML), including fair lending, financial reporting and monitoring...

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