The Federal Reserve on Thursday said the U.S. branch of German bank Commerzbank AG had lapses in its anti-money laundering systems that are supposed to prevent the flow of shadowy funds through the U.S. financial system.
The Fed and the bank have entered into an agreement requiring the Commerzbank to take steps to clean up its anti-money laundering programs. The Fed did not fine the bank for the shortcomings.
Reserve Bank examiners reviewed and assessed the effectiveness of the New York Branch’s Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (“BSA/AML”) compliance program and found that it failed to establish internal controls and independent testing for the Bulk Cash Transactions business line, and that the New York Branch failed to perform adequate customer due diligence on the correspondent account maintained for Commerzbank.
Detailed enforcement actions link: click here