Thursday, August 04, 2011

US Century Bank and the FDIC: a sharp focus on possible money laundering ... by gimleteye

Eyeonmiami continues to examine the federal Consent Order that brings public scrutiny to the insider piggy bank of Miami-Dade County: US Century Bank. Deep inside the order is a section where the implicit criticism of bank operations is very harsh. The section requires the bank to conform to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and to put in place a compliance plan. One would think, with all the attention on money laundering in South Florida and the political influence peddling of bank directors, US Century Bank would have had an adequate compliance plan and internal controls. This is what the Consent Order says: "After the Board has approved the Compliance Plan, the review and approval shall be recorded in the minutes of the Board. Thereafter the Bank shall take appropriate action to enable the Bank to comply with the BSA Rules." (italics and emphasis, mine)

Eyeonmiami has called US Century Bank the "insider piggy bank" based on the extraordinary ratio of insider loans compared to net worth (nearly 100 times higher than its peer group, according to Bauer Financial) and our knowledge of the lobbying influence of the board's directors and founders, including Sergio Pino and Ramon Rasco, but the FDIC -- and its sharp criticism of US Century's internal supervision -- is notable. "Within 60 days from the effective date of the Consent Order, the Board shall establish a Board committee ("BSA Directors' Committee), consisting of at least five members, to oversee the Bank's compliance with the BSA Rules and this ORDER. A majority of the members of the BSA Directors' Committee shall not be officers of the Bank."

I suppose the members could be county commissioners.

And it gets worse: "Within 60 days from the effective date of this ORDER, the Bank shall establish and implement monitoring and reporting procedures for Suspicious Activity Reports to ensure that all appropriate Bank employees are aware of the procedures, including accurate recordkeeping, form completion, and the detection and reporting of known and/or suspected criminal activity, and their responsibilities in implementing the procedures. Within 90 days of the effective date of this ORDER, the Bank shall contract with an independent auditor to conduct a detailed review of all high-risk accounts and high-risk transactions from November 30, 2009, to the present and determine whether Suspicious Activity Reports and Currency Transaction Reports should be filed."

The benign news reports of US Century Bank scarcely scratch the surface. What else is there?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been following these reports on US Century and am just startled at how long they've been able to get away with all of this.

Now I get a better understanding as to how flawed our system is, and the two sets of rules policy.....(my opinion)

In the 80's when the market collapsed and we had the S&L crisis and all the thrifts being taken over, I thought I'd never see such a calamity again - I was wrong.

Thanks for keeping up on this. I'm following this closely though I may not post much to let you know.

Anonymous said...

Hah. No wonder Rasco hosted a fundraiser for Bill Nelson :) :)

Geniusofdespair said...

Is The Rubio Mortgage from Century an example OF A VERY BAD LOAN POLICY? You be the judge:

Sale Date:12/2005 Sale Amount:$550,000


Assessed Value: 2009 -$392,113 2010 $443,000
-------
History of mortgages:

•Mortgage Universal American Mortgage Co. 12/14/2005 - $495,000

•Then 1/26/06 Century Bank gave him a home equity loan for $135,000

A notice of Limitation was prepared by US Century Bank for Marco Rubio 1/26/06 It said the mortgage given by Universal American limiting the amount of maximum principal the bank could take to $495,000

So century gave Rubio a mortgage bringing his total mortgage on the property to $630,000 in mortgages. On a property that was worth
$550,000. And, we have a man that was not making hardly ANY money at the time, and everyone knew it as his finances were disclosed publicly as he was holding office.

Sound banking practices? If Marco Rubio is an example, I think not....

Anonymous said...

Any inside information related to this post would be appreciated. Anonymity will be preserved.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't one of the US Century Bank stand-ins, the main voice against Charter Reform in M-D? I can't recall his name...

Anonymous said...

There is something I hope the Feds will read. This has NOTHING to do with Century Bank, who I am not defending or targeting. Please understand:


As to your actions with small banks- I am glad we are talking about this is DC. You do sometimes use a heavy hand, asking solid small banks to write down well-performing loans and then putting them on memorandum as they have to scramble to raise capital. This is the recipe for bank closure and many of us almost feel that you are in cahoots to rub them out on purpose (as you turn your head and under regulate Bankruptcy of America and Shiti Bank and Chase.

Century has it's own problems. This is not to defend them.

Anonymous said...

Why don't you write on ocean bank? You will be surprise on what you find!

Anonymous said...

The condition of this bank has not improved and probably will not. The insider loans are still there, just modified. The Federal Government will likely never see a dime. So why is the bank still open in 2012 when others have been shut down long before?
At least Ocean Bank paid it's bill to the fed.