FinCEN Says ABLV Bank No Longer of Primary Money Laundering Concern

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has withdrawn its finding that ABLV Bank, AS is a financial institution of primary money laundering concern, because the bank no longer operates as a depository institution.

ABLV was a commercial bank located in Riga, Latvia, and FinCEN found it to be of money laundering concern in 2018, the regulator said in a Thursday (Sept. 26) press release.

“The bank is in the advanced stage of an irrevocable liquidation process supervised by the Government of Latvia, which ensures anti-money laundering/countering terrorist financing (AML/CFT) compliance,” FinCEN said in the release.

“Furthermore, Latvian authorities have undertaken significant efforts to identify and address past illicit activity facilitated by the bank, resulting in criminal charges against owners of the bank and its senior managers,” the regulator added. “As a result, FinCEN has determined that ABLV is no longer a financial institution of primary money laundering concern.”

FinCEN announced its findings about ABLV on Feb. 16, 2018. At that time, the regulator issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that set forth its findings of money laundering concern about the bank and proposed prohibiting covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining in the U.S. correspondent accounts for, or on behalf of, ABLV, according to the release.

Shortly after that NPRM was issued, the European Central Bank (ECB) determined that ABLV and its subsidiary, ABLV Bank Luxembourg, was failing or likely to fail, withdrew the bank’s banking license and ordered that the Luxembourg subsidiary be dissolved, the release said.

Because of these developments, FinCEN withdrew its finding and the related NPRM Thursday, per the release.

“In parallel with targeted efforts relating to ABLV, FinCEN recognizes the notable progress made by the Government of Latvia to substantially strengthen its AML/CFT regime through a series of meaningful legal and regulatory reforms of its financial sector,” the release said.

When announcing its finding about ABLV in 2018, FinCEN said the bank “had institutionalized money laundering as a pillar of the bank’s business practices.”

It also said that some of the alleged activities were related to North Korea’s ballistic missiles program, and accused bank executives and management of bribing Latvian officials to hide their activities.

At the time, ABLV was Latvia’s third-largest lender.