ABN AMRO Bank to Pay $80 Million in Civil Settlement

A massive consent order with state, federal, and international parties, has |ABN AMRO Bank, N.V. taking remedial measures and also paying "$80 million in penalties to U.S. federal and state regulators." (See Wall Street Jrl here). 

The joint press release here demonstrates how several entities were able to cooperate to arrive at this resolution.  It was issued by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Office of Foreign Assets Control, NY State Banking Dept., and the Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation. The press release states in part:

"The Order requires ABN AMRO to make improvements to its global compliance and risk management systems to ensure adequate oversight, effective risk management, and full compliance with applicable U.S. laws and regulations. . . .

". . . . The agencies have assessed penalties based on findings of unsafe and unsound practices; on findings of systemic defects in ABN AMRO's internal controls to ensure compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws and regulations, which resulted in failures to identify, analyze, and report suspicious activity; and on findings that ABN AMRO participated in transactions that violated U.S. sanctions laws. ABN AMRO is also required to take ongoing measures to ensure compliance with U.S. sanctions laws."

There are 34 signature lines (the ABN AMRO's lines are repeats for each of the parties) on this "Order to Cease and Desist Issued Upon Consent" (here) and it even has the Dutch translation of the title of this Order included in the document [Order to issue a Direction (in Dutch, "Besluit tot het geven van een aanwijzing")].

And although there is a consent to a civil penalty, one does not find an admitting to wrongdoing.  For example, in the Assessment of Civil Penalty (here) it specifically states that it was entered into "without admitting or denying the determinations by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, as described in Sections III and IV below."

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