The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Feb. 28 issued a consent order against Seattle-based Washington Federal NA over deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance program.
As previously reported, Washington Federal Inc. and Anchor Bancorp in September 2017 pushed back their merger's termination date — from Dec. 31, 2017, to June 30, 2018 — citing issues found with Washington Federal NA's BSA program.
Washington Federal NA expects to continue to incur "significant" expenses as it strengthens its BSA program and implements additional policies and procedures to comply with the OCC's consent order. The bank added that it does not expect to pursue acquisitions or branch expansion until its BSA program has improved.
