June 22, 2016
Financial institutions that settled misconduct charges with New York State’s financial regulator have committed new improper behavior and “serious compliance failures,” the agency’s head said on Wednesday.
Monitors keeping tabs on the institutions discovered intentional misconduct, including improper foreign exchange trading practices, right up to the present day, said Maria Vullo, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. She declined to name the banks. The department oversees banks in the state, including branches of some of the world’s largest financial institutions, and can revoke their licenses for doing business.
“Some of the discoveries are very troubling,” Vullo said during a forum for legal and compliance professionals in New York. “There could very well be enforcement actions,” she told Reuters on the sidelines of the event.
Cases involving multiple authorities include agreements last year with Barclays Plc, which agreed to pay a total of $2.4 billion to settle allegations of foreign exchange manipulation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Commodities Futures Trading Commission and Federal Reserve, as well as the New York regulator. Barclay’s was also fined a record 284 million pounds ($441 million) by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority.