OCC Announces Enforcement Actions Against Banks and Individuals

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has announced enforcement actions against two banks and three individuals who are or were affiliated with banks.

“The OCC uses enforcement actions against banks to require the board of directors and management to take timely actions to correct the deficient practices or violations identified,” the regulator said in a Friday (May 16) press release.

Eastern National Bank of Miami, Florida, was sent a cease-and-desist order by the OCC that alleged unsafe or unsound practices related to strategic and capital planning, earnings, and board and management supervision. This order supersedes an earlier cease-and-desist order dated Nov. 19, 2020.

EH National Bank of Beverly Hills, California, was issued a cease-and-desist order alleging unsafe or unsound practices around management and board supervision, strategic and capital planning, liquidity risk, interest rate risk and concentration risk. The order superseded a formal agreement dated Oct. 11, 2023.

Neither Eastern National Bank nor EH National Bank immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Two of the individuals named in enforcement actions were formerly affiliated with Wells Fargo and were issued cease-and-desist orders in connection with the bank’s “longstanding systemic sales practices misconduct problem,” the OCC press release said.

David Julian, former chief auditor of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was issued an order for a $100,000 civil money penalty and a personal cease-and-desist order, while Paul McLinko, former executive audit director at the same bank, was issued an order for a $50,000 civil money penalty and a personal cease-and-desist order.

The OCC said in an April 25 press release that it had previously entered into consent orders with eight other former Wells Fargo senior executives related to those sales practices since January 2020.

The regulator said in January that its enforcement actions against 11 former Wells Fargo senior bank executives “explained that under pressure to meet unreasonable sales goals, thousands of employees at the bank engaged in widespread sales practices misconduct.”

The third individual against whom the OCC announced an enforcement action in its Friday press release is Edward Langton, former CEO and chairman of the board of Grand Bank for Savings, Federal Savings Bank, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This case involves an order of prohibition alleging violation of conflict-of-interest requirements, engaging in unsafe or unsound practices, and breaching his fiduciary duty, per the release.