Fed orders Customers Bank to improve AML, sanctions compliance

Federal Reserve

Pennsylvania-based Customers Bancorp avoided a fine but was ordered to revamp and strengthen its anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance programs after finding “significant deficiencies,” the Federal Reserve Board announced.

The deficiencies, discovered during an examination, were related to the bank’s risk management practices for handling digital assets, as well as issues with its compliance with the BSA, rules and regulations, and sanctions regulations administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Fed said in a written agreement with the bank Thursday.

Customers Bancorp, a bank holding company based in West Reading, Penn. owns and controls Customers Bank, an institution with nearly $21 billion in assets based in Malvern, Penn. Customers Bank offers banking services to digital asset customers, as well as an “instant payments platform that allows commercial clients to make tokenized payments over a distributed ledger technology system to other commercial clients of the bank,” the Fed said.

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