Almost as bad as the Murder on Elm Street - name anything BSA and it's in the consent order

Came up today with Continental National Bank vs. OCC - guess who won The look back is interesting

https://www.occ.gov/static/enforcement-actions/ea2017-051.pdf

"(2) The purpose of the Look-Back is to determine whether additional SARs should be
filed for any previously unreported suspicious activity, including cases in which the BSA Officer
or staff identified suspicious activity but failed to adequately support a decision not to file a
SAR, and to review the quality and accuracy of previous SAR filings to determine whether
corrections or amendments are necessary to ensure that the suspicious activity identified was
accurately reported in compliance with 12 C.F.R. § 21.11."

Local news story. Not that large of a bank, less than $500 million. Weekend reading for sure...

New BSA officer with 32 associates!!

The language of the consent order includes a laundry list of standard BSA/AML requirements imposed in such cases, and it's difficult to know whether an item is included because of a shortcoming in the bank's recent examination findings or it's just a litany of what's expected by the OCC. The reference in the "look-back" narrative quoted by Rocky P is interesting. It does send a message that, if you decide not to file on activity you have investigated, you really need to document your reasoning for that decision. Just noting the decision isn't enough.

I am surprised at the information in the news article that suggests the bank has 32 personnel devoted to its re-energized BSA/AML efforts. Perhaps some of that number are devoted to the look-back requirement. But this bank only has five offices, all in Florida's Miami-Dade County, assets of about $491 million, and barely over 100 FTEs. It must have a lot of foreign transactions to warrant such heavy BSA/AML staffing.

Interesting reading for sure. The problem with regulatory enforcement actions is they predict the future where penalty assessments explain the past.

I am more interested in knowing what this bank did rather than what it's going to do...

Cease and Desist order by FRB against another bank today as well: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/files/enf20170822a1.pdf

First American Bank $5.3 billion Elk Grove Village, IL bank acquiring Continental National Bank. This would be the second acquisition of a Miami Florida area bank for First American. Good luck to them. Hope they have a strong BSA team, they are going to need it.