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Loud and Clear: FinCEN Demands a Culture of Compliance

By Daniel R. Alonso
October 02, 2014

The onslaught of civil and criminal enforcement actions against financial institutions for violating anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) laws has continued its brisk pace in the past few months, with enforcement of the AML provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the sanctions regulations administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) showing no signs of slowing down. From the recent convictions of a major French bank for conspiring to violate OFAC sanctions, to the deferred prosecution agreement with one of the largest U.S.-based banks for substantive BSA violations in connection with the Bernie Madoff fraud, money laundering and sanctions violations are clearly at the front of the government's collective mind.

In that vein, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which implements the BSA, recently and pointedly reminded U.S. financial institutions that fulfilling their AML compliance obligations is not just about policies, procedures, and compliance personnel, but implicates the very culture of an organization. In a regulatory advisory issued on Aug. 11, 2014, FinCEN sets forth “general lessons” gleaned from its enforcement of the BSA, and flatly states that “a financial institution with a poor culture of compliance is likely to have shortcomings in its BSA/AML models.” FinCEN Advisory FIN-2014-A007 (Aug. 11, 2014) (the “Advisory”).

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