Federal regulators said Tuesday that they had fined a Puerto Rican bank $25,000 for Bank Secrecy Act violations eight days before the company went into receivership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The independent bank regulator and the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) penalized San Juan-based Eurobank on April 22 for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering (AML) controls, including reporting suspicious activity. The penalty agreement preceded Eurobank's April 30 takeover by the FDIC and the sale of its deposits to San Juan-based Oriental Bank and Trust. The closing of the bank, which was the subject of...
Federal authorities believe Puerto Rico is a weak link in the U.S. anti-money laundering regime and may consider punitive actions against one or two financial institutions found to have lax compliance programs, a senior FBI official said.
United Roosevelt Savings Bank and Eurobank, in cease and desist orders issued Tuesday, were instructed to look for transactions that should have triggered currency transaction reports or suspicious activity reports. Both were cited for other deficiencies in their anti-money laundering programs.
print