Saturday Links

The FDIC issued its 2nd Quarter Letter to Stakeholders highlighting the FDIC's activities and accomplishments over that period.  The Letter contains links to many of the FDIC's important publications over this period and summaries of important statistics.

The Board of Governors and FinCEN assessed a 20 million dollar civil penalty against American Express Bank International and a 5 million dollar penalty against American Express Travel Related Services, Inc. for Bank Secrecy Act violations.  Roger T. Cole, the director of the FRB Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation said "Today's action by the Federal Reserve underscores the necessity for banking institutions to have anti-money laundering controls in place that are commensurate with the level of risk associated with their operations.  Every banking organization should ensure that its risk-management practices are effective in mitigating the risks associated with its particular operations.”  Click here to link to the official FRB press release.

For a page and a half insight into the economic traumas of the last week, see an article by Daniel Gross in Slate magazine entitled "When Fools Rush In, The Joke's on Them, Dissecting the Henry Youngman Economy."

"The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced the execution of a Written Agreement by and among Marshall BankFirst Corp., Minneapolis, Minnesota, BANKFIRST, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the South Dakota Department of Revenue and Regulation, Division of Banking, and The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis."  The agreement is available here.