Compliance Blog

This week FinCEN and OCC announced a $15 million civil money penalty issued against the New York Branch of of the United Bank for Africa (UBA).  The CMP comes on the heels of two cease and desist orders.  According to FinCEN, UBA is the largest bank in Nigeria.  I don't think it is any coincidence that FinCEN, in the official "assessment of civil money penalty," notes that Nigeria is seen as a center of financial crime before explaining that this particular branch provides a link for its customer base in Nigeria to the U.S. financial system.

You can access the FinCEN announcement here, which also has links to related documents from FinCEN and the OCC.  It remains to be seen whether the development will make it more difficult for Nigerian-based criminals to gain access to the U.S. financial system.

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Let me just be clear about one thing.  Having an outdoor wedding makes one an avid reader of long-range weather forecasts.  I'm not saying that I'm obsessive-compulsive, but I bet that some www.accuweather.com employee wonders why there has been a major spike in forecast requests for the sleepy hamlet of Syria, Virginia.  As of today, the weather report for W-Day is 74 degrees, with intervals of clouds and sunshine.