Agricultural Bank of China to Pay New York State $215 Million

Agricultural Bank of China to pay New York state $215 million for anti-money laundering violations

Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (601288.SS) ABOC.UL pay a fine of $ 215 million for violating money laundering law of the State of New York, announced Friday the financial regulator of state.

Bank officials have committed "willful misconduct" including mask suspicious transactions in its New York branch. Some transactions involved parties subject to US sanctions, said the Department of Financial Services State of New York.

The bank has also "silenced" the chief enforcement branch, which has expressed concerns with managers about a model of financial transactions "alarming" suspects, the regulator said. The transactions include payments from Yemen Chinese enterprises and the "unusually large" transfers between Chinese and Russian companies.

The bank, in a consent order with the regulator, agreed to establish an independent monitor to face "serious deficiencies", the regulator said.

officials of China Agricultural Bank and its New York branch could not be reached immediately.

The bank has total assets of approximately $ 2.8 billion, of which about $ 9.5 billion to the New York branch, according to officials of the State of New York.

Since 2013, the New York branch has deleted transactions involving US dollars corresponding foreign banks' volumes increasing rapidly, "according to the consent order.

In dollar compensation, foreign exchange transactions between the parties are satisfied in US dollars using a US bank.

In 2014, New York regulator warned the bank that its systems monitoring suspicious transactions were insufficient and said the bank would not resume their activities dollars compensation until it launches improved surveillance measures.

Although the practice is common, compensation can be risky for banks, since it can be used by criminals and militants groups planning attacks washing and transfer money.

"The bank has deliberately ignored the warnings and dollar clearing operations by the bank in the New York branch, which broke out in 2014 and 2015," the regulator said.

The tactics of the Agricultural Bank of China to hide transactions include sending coded messages through a messaging system that uses international fixed telephony enforcement personnel to control and monitor financial activity.

The compliance officer that the regulator did not identify, said that many of the "opaque" bank transactions was intended for customers whose identity should have been disclosed for monitoring purposes.

Once, for example, a Turkish bank has processed dollar transactions for a customer Afghan bank is known by the United States Department of the Treasury for its links with associated with drug trafficking and illicit money flows network.

Branch managers, in response to concerns of the compliance officer, the officer ordered not to communicate with regulators.

The compliance officer left in June 2015.

A month later, the bank examiners from New York discovered a delay of almost 700 "unmanageable" potentially suspicious transactions that had not yet been studied.