Zions First National Bank Hit With $8 Million BSA And Anti-Money Laundering Fine

Zions First National Bank of, Salt Lake City, Utah, is going to pay an $8 million penalty to resolve a coordinated action by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network charging Zions with violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA Patriot Act. 

The OCC commenced an investigation into the bank’s former foreign correspondent business and identified deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering controls, which resulted in violations of law. In particular, the government asserted, the bank had developed a remote deposit capture product that enabled customers to deposit imaged items electronically from remote locations and marketed the product to high risk customers in 2006 and 2007 without sufficient regard to BSA/AML compliance implications. The bank exited the foreign correspondent line of business in early 2008, promptly conducted a voluntary look back, and reported suspicious activity. 
 
FinCEN determined that Zions violated BSA requirements by failing to establish and implement an effective AML program with respect to its foreign correspondent banking relationships with casas de cambio, banks, casas de bolsa and foreign corporate customers, and failing to file timely suspicious activity reports.