Employees Raise Concerns About PenFed's AML Program

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that employees at Pentagon Federal Credit Union (McLean, VA) reported to executives and regulators concerns about the credit union's anti-money laundering (AML) program.

"The concerns raised about Pentagon Federal Credit Union in 2016 and 2017 included understaffing, gaps in reporting of potentially suspicious transactions to the government, insufficient monitoring of wire transfers, a lack of anti-money-laundering training for senior leaders and inadequate scrutiny of potentially high-risk customers."

However, information obtained by the Wall Street Journal does not provide any evidence of money laundering by the credit union's members.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) told the Wall Street Journal that the allegations were false; but the credit union has made changes to its AML program, including reorganizing management, hiring more staff, adopting new policies and investing in suspicious-activity detection technology.

The article also states that PenFed entered into a document of resolution with the National Credit Union Administration to bolster its AML program.

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