Wells Fargo agrees to pay $7 million to failing to follow anti-money laundering rules

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to pay $7 million to settle charges that it failed to file at least 34 suspicious activity reports in a timely manner between April, 2017, and October, 2021. The SEC said the bank’s anti-money laundering (AML) system adopted in January, 2019 failed to recognize the different country codes used to monitor foreign wire transfers. This resulted in at least 25 late suspicious activity reports. At least nine more suspicious activity reports were not filed in a timely manner due to a failure to appropriately process wire transfer data into its anti-money laundering transaction monitoring system. “Through this enforcement action, we are not only holding Wells Fargo Advisors accountable, but also sending a loud and clear message to other registrants that anti-money laundering obligations are sacrosanct,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement. Wells Fargo shares fell 0.9% on Friday and are down 13.4% so far this year, compared to a drop of 18.8% by the S&P 500 .

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