Banks to face Justice Dept action against money laundering – WSJ

REUTERS: The U.S. Justice Department plans additional enforcement actions against banks that do not have enough safeguards against money laundering, the acting head of the department’s criminal division said in an interview to the Wall Street Journal.

“I think (banks) still need to do more,” said Mythili Raman, the acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“There’s more (enforcement actions) to come, and that suggests to me that there are still banks that haven’t gotten the message.”

A federal judge on Wednesday approved an agreement between JPMorgan Chase & Co and U.S. prosecutors to settle charges that the bank violated anti-money laundering laws by failing to alert authorities to warning signs its employees encountered in dealings with convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.

Raman said the department was not looking for one-off instances. “We need to show a willful violation of their duties to ensure that there’s an effective compliance program in place.”