The Federal Reserve has terminated a more than two-decade-old enforcement action against a former employee of The Marathon Bank in Winchester, Virginia.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Fed said it released Lori H. Staples from a cease-and-desist order issued in May 2003. The action was officially terminated on April 4.
The order required Staples to provide written notice to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond before becoming an "institution-affiliated party" with any depository institution. Before the order was issued, Staples was a vice president of The Marathon Bank.
The document did not specify what laws or regulations Staples violated to warrant the cease and desist, but it noted that if she were hired by or affiliated with another bank, she would have to ensure that she and the institution complied with the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act and related regulations issued by the Treasury Department. It also noted her obligations to adhere to anti-money-laundering standards.
Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, Staples declined to comment on the cease-and-desist order or its termination.
The enforcement action did not come with an expiration date. Instead, it noted that it would "remain fully effective and enforceable until expressly stayed, modified, terminated or suspended in writing by the Board of Governors."
At the time, The Marathon Bank was a state-chartered bank and a member of the Federal Reserve System, which made the Fed its primary federal regulator.
The order against Staples outlived her former employer. The Marathon Bank, which was founded in 1988, was absorbed by United Bank in 2007 as part of a string of acquisitions in the Northern Virginia and greater Washington, D.C., areas by the Fairfax-based firm.
Established as The George Mason Bank in 1979, the bank acquired The Washington Bank in Falls Church in 1992 and United Bank in Arlington County in 1998, after which it changed its name to United Bank. It then acquired Sequoia Bank in Bethesda, Maryland in 2003 and Harrisonburg, Virginia-based Rockingham Heritage Bank in 2007, at the same time it acquired The Marathon Bank.
United Bank has since purchased seven other banks, including the Piedmont Bank in Peachtree Corner, Georgia, which it acquired on Jan. 11.
United Bank now has 238 branches spread through eight states and the District of Columbia. Its biggest footprints are in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
