News

Poor regulatory oversight noted in a congressional report this week extends beyond safety and soundness issues to lax Bank Secrecy Act enforcement, according to individuals who have worked with the thrift supervisor. On Wednesday, the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) released a 635-page report that criticized the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) for failing to penalize Washington Mutual (WaMu) after finding over "500 serious deficiencies" in the bank's underwriting policies, risk concentrations and risk layering, among other problems. The report largely focused on alleged lending abuses by multiple financial institutions. In its oversight of WaMu's lending...