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BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Miss., has been hit with a consent order tied to compliance weaknesses tied to the Bank Secrecy Act and the Patriot Act.
September 5 -
BancorpSouth has withdrawn applications for two planned acquisitions after the Tupelo, Miss., company drew regulatory scrutiny for its Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
August 6
BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Miss., is getting a shot to show regulators that it has meaningfully improved its Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
The $13 billion-asset company has arranged to have examiners visit its offices in January to review the progress it has made addressing a
"They sent us all the proper documents and papers to review our BSA program," Dan Rollins, BancorpSouth's chairman and chief executive, said in an interview Friday.
"Frankly, we're excited that they'll be back," Rollins said. "We've made significant changes, improvements and enhancements. We think they will see a completely different program than when they were in here before."
Regulators will see a much bigger BSA group and a different organizational structure, Rollins said. During the first visit, BancorpSouth had three people specifically devoted to BSA compliance, with other employees pitching in from other departments. Now, the company has "a shade under 40 people" working on Bank Secrecy Act issues, he said.
"The image of [staffing and structure] is doing to be different," Rollins said.
BancorpSouth has also made some enhancements to its systems, though it is working with the same vendor. The company also has the support of the third-party consultant it had to hire as part of the consent order, he said.
The consent order put two deals on ice for BancorpSouth. The company disclosed in August that it had
Should it get a passing grade next month, BancorpSouth plans to quickly refile its applications for those deals, Rollins said. "Hopefully we can get those approvals and move expeditiously on them," he said.
