The chief risk officer at TD Bank Group said “procedural weaknesses” in the institution’s U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) program allowed bad actors to exploit its network.
Ajai Bambawale acknowledged the bank’s AML program needed shoring up, in response to an analyst’s question included in a transcript of the bank’s May 23 conference call regarding its second-quarter earnings.
“[W]e always endeavor to be best in class in every risk area, but yes, from time to time, we find we’ve fallen behind in a particular area, and we’re out there owning the issue that we fell behind in our program and our program did not pick up things it should have picked up,” Bambawale said.
He cited the weaknesses in the bank’s AML program in the United States, adding the bank was “disappointed that some of our colleagues didn’t follow our code of ethics.”
He ended by saying, “[W]e’re not denying it. We’re owning it.”
On April 30, TD Bank disclosed it set aside $450 million to settle potential charges levied by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies regarding failures in its AML program. On May 2, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada fined TD Bank a record of nearly 9.2 million Canadian dollars (then-U.S. $6.7 million) for failing to comply with its AML regulations.
During the conference call, TD Bank Group President and Chief Executive Bharat Masrani said the bank is “working hard” to fix the issues with its AML program.
“[W]e are in the process of fixing it, and we will fix it,” he added.
In a press release announcing the release of its second-quarter results, the bank stated, “The bank has been cooperating with U.S. regulators and authorities in good faith for many months and is working diligently to bring these investigations to resolution so that investors can have more clarity. A comprehensive overhaul of TD’s U.S. AML program is well underway and will strengthen our program globally.”
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