On July 9, the California DFPI, alone and joining five other state financial regulatory agencies, announced a multistate enforcement action resulting in a $4.2 million penalty against a licensed money transmitter for alleged violations of BSA/AML law. The action followed a multi-state examination covering the money transmitter’s activities from July 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023. Other states in addition to California included Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas and Massachusetts. The states collectively alleged compliance violations related to the company’s BSA/AML/Countering the Financing of Terrorism Program, including allegedly failing to provide for independent reviews, deficiencies in investigating and reporting suspicious activity, data integrity issues, not correcting past deficiencies, and violating the CFPB’s Remittance Transfer Rule. Without admitting or denying the states’ findings or conclusions, the company agreed to enter into the consent order and pay the penalty, which will be divided among the participating regulators.

As previously covered by InfoBytes, the same money transmitter company had its case amended by the CFPB in May.