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Seeking Leniency, Banks Can Inadvertently Find Costs in Tolling Agreements
By Brian Monroe
printIt's a question few banks ever want to hear from the U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions arm: would you waive your statute of limitations protections and allow us to review more data? Yet increasingly, financial institutions have acceded to such requests in the hopes of earning credit with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a review of Treasury Department data shows. The arrangements, known as tolling agreements, typically allow OFAC officials to review at least a year's worth of data otherwise protected under the 5-year statute of limitations on civil penalties and forfeitures. Not long ago, the arrangements were rare....
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