ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Dover N.J. Spanish American Federal Credit Union agreed to a cease and desist order from NCUA for "substantial Bank Secrecy Act compliance problems," NCUA recently announced.
The credit union, without admitting or denying fault and to avoid litigation, has agreed to a laundry list of changes to its BSA compliance program, according to the order, including:
oobtaining an outside consultant within 30 days to help correct BSA and anti-money laundering compliance deficiencies;
ocompleting a risk assessment;
odesignating a "competent, full-time" BSA compliance officer;
oensuring cash transaction and outgoing wire monitoring spreadsheets are updated daily and monitoring tools are analyzed weekly;
odeveloping internal controls and additional transaction monitoring tools to ensure proper reporting;
oensuring Currency Transaction Reports, Suspicious Activity Reports, and others are completed properly and kept confidential;
odedicating sufficient staffing for back-filing to 2001 within 60 days of the order;
oestablishing a Customer Identification Program; and
oensuring all members are checked against the Officer of Foreign Assets Control's Specially Designated Nationals list monthly, among several other items.
The agreement was signed by the credit union board members at the end of February, so many of these items should be in place, according to the cease and desist order. NCUA did not comment beyond the order and a call to the credit union for comment was not returned as of press time.
Dover N.J. Spanish American Federal Credit Union was originally chartered in 1970 to serve members of Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church and The Morris County Organization for Hispanic Affairs in Dover, N.J. The credit union currently serves approximately 4,000 members. NCUA assured that member funds are federally insured.
