Posted on Thu, Feb. 03, 2005
The second largest bank in Chile will follow a U.S. order to stop doing business with former dictator Augusto Pinochet, as well as correct practices at its Miami branch.
BY KATHLEEN DAY
WASHINGTON - Chile's second-largest bank, Banco de Chile, has agreed to demands by U.S. regulators that it stop doing business with former dictator Augusto Pinochet and his lawyer, stop concealing information from the United States and other governments, and correct practices in its New York and Miami branches that violated federal laws designed to prevent money laundering.
In consent agreements released Wednesday with the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a unit of the Treasury Department, Banco de Chile agreed to fundamental changes in operations at the two branches.
Those changes include running background checks on key employees every 18 months, keeping accurate, thorough records about banking accounts, and certifying it has ended any relationship with Pinochet, 89, or lawyer Oscar Aitken.
''Banco de Chile is 100 percent committed to continue its full cooperation with its supervisors. We are determined to avoid a recurrence of any similar situation,'' the bank's chief executive, Pablo Granifo Lavin, said in a written statement Wednesday.
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