Japan's
Bank of Tokyo
- Mitsubishi Skirts
North Korea
Sanctions With
"Incorrect"
Application to
US OCC, Public
Excluded
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photo
UNITED NATIONS,
November 17 – Amid talk of
increased enforcement of
sanctions on North Korea, and
possible imposition of new
sanctions against Myanmar, a
November 13 letter from the New
York State Department of
Financial Services cites Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi for “continuing
compliance failures in Hong
Kong, which has a 'repeat
transaction' program for certain
high risk clients in Chinese
cities bordering North Korea.
The repeat transaction program
results in not more but less
scrutiny of these clients
transactions.” The NYSDFS letter
also notes that BTMU has
processed transaction through
its New York branch for “Burmese
parties” on the OFAC sanctions
list. How did Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi react to the
New York regulator's
investigation of these issues?
It applied on October 30 to
switch to the more lax Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency
and had its application approved
in a mere week, then threw the
state regulators out of its New
York branch on Sixth Avenue. All
this just a few blocks from the
United Nations whose Security
Council, on which Japan has a
seat until the end of the year,
has imposed rounds of sanctions
on North Korea for its nuclear
weapons program, and was set to
vote
for a new UN Special Envoy on
Myanmar, or Burma, on November
16. What's going on? Now Inner
City Press can exclusively
report a further outrage, not
included in the NYSDFS letter
nor a Wall Street Journal
article which quoted it. The OCC
gave its approval in a week even
while belatedly listing Bank of
Tokyo - Mitsubishi's filings
under "THESE APPLICATIONS
APPEARED INCORRECTLY IN A PRIOR
WEEKLY BULLETIN." Photo here;
link to Bulletin here.
The public, as is the trend
under the OCC, was cut out. The
face savings compliance
agreement, here,
does not cure or address this. The OCC is lax not
only in sanctions compliance and
absurdly short comment periods
on corporate applications - it
also markets itself to banks as
being “flexible” on other
compliance issues including the
U.S. Community Reinvestment Act.
Recently the OCC announced that
even a rare less than
satisfactory CRA rating would
not bar approval of a bank's
application, click here
for that Inner City Press
coverage. A new Comptroller,
Joseph Otting formerly of
OneWest Bank, is set to be
confirmed by the U.S. Senate
this week, even while the OCC
has refused to answer a pending
Press (and CRC) request under
the Freedom of Information Act.
A lawsuit has now been filed.
What will a FOIA request into
the OCC's communications with
Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi
yield? Watch this site.
***
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