A third large bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU), has agreed to pay penalties to resolve allegations that it violated U.S. financial sanctions.
BTMU is the latest bank to settle with U.S. authorities in recent days (following HSBC and Standard Chartered). The bank said Thursday that it has agreed to pay approximately US$8.6 million to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to settle potential civil liability for apparent violations of OFAC’s regulations from 2006 to 2007.
The bank says that it conducted an internal investigation of transactions involving countries subject to U.S. sanctions and reported the results of the investigation to OFAC in 2007. Now, after a series of consultations with OFAC, some of the transactions reported by BTMU were determined to be apparent violations of the OFAC regulations, it says.
In addition to the monetary penalties, BTMU reports that it has fully reviewed its operations management framework, and undertaken significant remediation efforts. “We are committed to continue improving our compliance and internal control frameworks,” it adds.
BTMU adds that it continues to cooperate closely with all relevant regulators and is “sincerely undertaking necessary actions”.
Separately, BTMU announced that Merrill Lynch is selling its stake in their joint venture, known as Mitsubishi UFJ Merrill Lynch PB Securities Co., Ltd., which was founded in 2006 to provide private banking services to high net worth individuals in Japan. Currently, Merrill owns 49% of the firm, which it has agreed to transfer to BTMU and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings Co., Ltd. BTMU owns 41.2%, which will grow to 49%; while Mitsubishi’s stake will rise from 9.8% to 51%.
It says the company will maintain its business partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and for the time being, it “will receive substantially the same business support as it previously received prior to the shareholding change and continue using its company name”, it says.