U.S. Bancorp to pay $613 million for lack of anti-money laundering checks

U.S Bancorp, the parent company of U.S. Bank, will pay more than $613 million in fines and penalties to federal regulators over a failure to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) laws.

U.S. Bancorp will pay a total of $613 million for a lack of sufficient checks to ensure the bank was adhering to the Bank Secrecy Act and laws meant to weed out illicit finance.

The company will forfeit $528 million in profits and pay fines to three federal agencies: $15 million to the Federal Reserve Board, $75 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and $185 million to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

“The bank had systemic deficiencies in its transaction monitoring systems, which resulted in monitoring gaps and a significant amount of unreported suspicious activity,” said the OCC in a statement.

“The bank conducted a look-back required by the 2015 consent order and, as a result, had to file additional Suspicious Activity Reports, which constituted additional violations.”

U.S. Bank said it installed new leadership for its anti-money laundering program and has taken steps since 2014 to expand the depth, scope and thoroughness of its efforts to root out money laundering.

“Today’s resolution finalizes legacy matters involving our AML compliance program,” said Andy Cecere, president and CEO of U.S. Bank.

“We regret and have accepted responsibility for the past deficiencies in our AML program. Our culture of ethics and integrity demands that we do better. One of U.S. Bank’s key priorities is to maintain an exceptional AML program and we are confident in the strength of the program we have in place today.”