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The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has levied a $6 million penalty against Sterling Bank & Trust FSB for maintaining a loan program that threatened to financially destabilize the lender and attract the proceeds of crime.

In a consent order published Tuesday, the OCC noted that Sterling Bank shut the “Advantage Loan Program” down in December 2019, six months after the regulator ordered the Southfield, Michigan-headquartered lender to submit an updated customer due-diligence framework and revise other anti-money laundering controls.

The institution has since returned to compliance with federal safety-and-soundness and AML requirements, the OCC said Tuesday.