Chief compliance officers and senior managers of New York-chartered financial institutions have begun the process of complying with the state's new transaction-screening rule amid persistent concerns that they could be held individually responsible for potential violations.
Amid questions from federal officials and criticism from bank lobbyists, New York regulators issued a final rule Thursday largely scrapping initial plans to hold senior compliance executives legally responsible for compliance lapses.
Federal officials on Monday voiced concerns about New York's plans to finalize a rule that would hold top compliance officers liable for regulatory lapses at their financial institutions.
A New York regulator's plan to hold senior bankers legally responsible for compliance failures conflicts with federal rules and threatens to exacerbate an industry trend to shed risk-fraught accounts wholesale, lobbying groups said.
Federal regulators of anti-money laundering rules issued 16 percent more enforcement actions in 2015 than in the previous year, a jump due in part to an intensified focus on nonbank firms.
A New York state proposal to hold bank executives liable for compliance lapses could prove stricter than the federal law that inspired it, and prompt senior-level talent to pursue other careers, say critics.
Legal safeguards intended to comfort banks when reporting suspicious client activity do not extend to instances when third-party litigants obtain sensitive compliance data on their own, according to an appellate court.
Germany's second-largest bank will pay $1.45 billion to U.S. law enforcement agencies and regulators and fire multiple employees to settle charges that it violated sanctions laws and anti-money laundering rules.
Reports that Benjamin Lawsky will step down early next year as superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services highlight how time can paradoxically seem to pass both quickly and slowly, almost simultaneously.
Beleaguered bank BNP Paribas SA will move several top compliance positions to New York City in a bid to please the U.S. Justice Department and American regulators preparing to fine the institution.
With New York rules for digital currency exchanges in the works, other states are stepping up to draft rules of their own, speakers at a Manhattan Bitcoin conference said Monday.
New York's financial regulator Thursday said a Japanese bank must pay $250 million for breaking a state recordkeeping law-the second time the agency has used the rule against sanctions violators.