Banks' boards of directors and senior management eager to instill compliance cultures at their institutions must both verbalize the importance of meeting regulatory requirements and reward the compliance professionals who make it happen, a top U.S. bank regulatory official said Wednesday. These steps are "absolutely critical" to compliance with anti-money laundering rules because board members and senior managers are responsible for "setting the tone at the top" and instilling a "good compliance culture," Daniel Stipano, deputy chief counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said at an anti-money laundering conference in Las Vegas. Stipano said that while "what you say about compliance is important," if employee bonuses and compensation are not tied to "doing a good job on compliance" a bank is not "walking the talk, the talk is just empty, and people will figure that out." His comments were offered during a panel at the Association of Certified Anti-Money
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