American Express Fined $350m Over AML Failures

US banking regulators have fined American Express National Bank $350 million over weaknesses in its anti-money laundering controls. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) imposed the civil money penalty alongside a cease-and-desist order, while the Federal Reserve issued a separate order against the bank’s parent companies.

According to the OCC, the bank’s Bank Secrecy Act and AML programme suffered from inadequate resources, staff lacking expertise, internal control gaps, weak independent testing and poor training. Its risk assessment concentrated on its relatively small deposit business rather than its much larger credit and charge card operations.

The regulator said systemic breakdowns in monitoring and reporting meant roughly $13 billion of suspected trade-based money laundering over the past decade was not identified and reported in time, some of it linked to accounts connected to bank insiders. The Fed has given the group 90 days to submit plans to strengthen board oversight and its enterprise-wide AML programme. American Express consented to the orders without admitting or denying the findings.

Article Credit: https://www.bankingexchange.com/news-feed/item/10706-american-express-fined-350m-over-aml-failures