Markets Wired

As Prepared for Delivery 

Thank you. I am glad to join Attorney General Garland, Deputy Attorney General Monaco, and the rest of you here today. I applaud DOJ’s efforts. I won’t speak to its case, but to the separate investigation that Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network undertook and the action we’ve taken.

The Department of the Treasury utilizes sanctions and the enforcement of our country’s anti-money laundering (AML) laws to protect our national security from illicit actors. From drug trafficking to combatting Russian aggression, the Treasury Department is committed to using all of the tools available to us to protect the American people.

We are proud of the public-private partnership we have formed with the financial sector to protect our national security. The vast majority of financial institutions work hand-in-hand with Treasury to keep our country and our communities safe.

TD Bank has done the exact opposite. For more than a decade, through deliberate actions—and inaction—TD Bank failed to meet its responsibilities.

TD Bank failed to implement or maintain a sufficient AML compliance program.

TD Bank failed to monitor trillions of dollars in transactions each year, including those the Bank knew posed a high-risk for abuse.

TD Bank failed to conduct adequate due diligence on high-risk customers, ignoring glaring red flags.

TD Bank failed to live up to its responsibilities to the American people.

I want to be clear, these systemic failures did not just create hypothetical vulnerabilities, but they resulted in actual, material harm to American citizens and communities. Time and again, unlike its peers, TD Bank prioritized growth and profit over complying with the law.

The bank enabled drug trafficking. In one example from FinCEN’s investigation, TD Bank facilitated over $400 million in transactions to launder money on behalf of criminals that were selling fentanyl and other deadly drugs that are poisoning our neighborhoods. In exchange for filing false or misleading reports on these transactions, TD Bank tellers accepted gift cards as bribes. In another example, TD Bank failed to detect the suspicious activities of one of its own employees who was accepting bribes in exchange for opening accounts in the name of shell companies.

That’s why today we are announcing the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) $1.3 billion penalty on TD Bank, the largest civil monetary penalty against a bank in Treasury’s history.
In addition to a historic penalty, TD Bank has agreed to a four-year monitor to oversee its extensive remedial measures, including end-to-end review of its AML program. The bank will also be required to provide missing suspicious activity reports and, for the first time, FinCEN will require additional accountability and data governance reviews to provide recommendations for changing TD Bank’s culture of noncompliance.

Together, these requirements hold TD Bank accountable for its egregious and willful disregard of the law and the real harm it caused. This action demonstrates that we are committed to holding individuals and institutions accountable.

Let me end by thanking FinCEN, the IRS Criminal Investigation team, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, and the Department of Justice for their collaboration. We look forward to continuing to work together to enforce our nation’s laws and protect our national security.

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