TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian lender TD Bank’s chief compliance officer has left the bank as it faces U.S. regulators and the Justice Department in an anti-money laundering investigation, according to a memo sent to the company.
Monica Kowal, who joined the bank in 2017, will leave the bank this week and be replaced by acting chief compliance officer Erin Morrow, who will report to chief risk officer Ajay Bambawale, according to a late June memo seen by Reuters.
In his memo, Bambawale did not give a reason for Kowal’s departure. Chief Executive Officer Bharat Masrani has previously said the bank has taken action against responsible employees, including termination of their jobs.
TD declined to comment on Kowal’s departure, and Kowal was not immediately available for comment.
Morrow joined TD in January after more than a decade at US bank Citi. TD has also hired Marcy Forman and Jacqueline Sanjuas from Citi and Herbert Mazariegos, its global chief anti-money laundering officer, from BMO, to overhaul its team.
The bank said it had invested more than $500 million in training programs, hired hundreds of AML experts and hired an executive to lead the regulatory program after Masrani said its AML program was inadequate and failed to effectively monitor, detect, report and respond — something he called “unacceptable” in May.
The bank also said it had set aside $450 million in initial reserves and was expecting further fines, which analysts say could total as much as $4 billion.
(Reporting by Nivedita Bal in Toronto; Editing by Joshi Kao)
