The bank unit of Finward Bancorp in Munster, Ind., is operating under a consent order requiring it to bulk up its Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions flagged the $2.1 billion-asset Peoples Bank for “unsafe and unsound banking practices.” Finward agreed to the order without “admitting or denying the charges.”
The order gives the bank 90 days to develop, adopt and implement a revised written anti-money laundering program. The bank must have management qualified to oversee all aspects of its AML program, including a qualified BSA officer, and develop a revised, comprehensive training program.
Peoples Bank also has 180 days to develop, adopt, and implement a revised written program for monitoring and reporting suspicious activity “from the point of initial detection to the disposition of the investigation.”
“Following a routine regulatory exam in March, Peoples Bank was cited for a violation related to BSA guidelines,” Sarah Ricciardi, the bank’s director of marketing, told Inside Indiana Business.
“The violation was identified by the bank during an audit prior to the examination,” she added. “Because we were able to identify these issues, the bank proactively began correcting them and began implementing new systems and processes to prevent future reporting errors.”