Fed Issues Bank of Rogers Cease and Desist Order

Clerical errors on currency transaction reports apparently precipitated a July 12 “cease and desist” order from the Federal Reserve to Bank of Rogers.

According to the order, bank employees failed during two routine bank audits — one in 1998 and one last February — to completely fill out the lengthy two-page CTR forms that are required by the Bank Secrecy Act for all transactions involving $10,000 or more.

The order commanded Bank of Rogers to improve its procedures for completing the forms, but did not interrupt bank business.

Dick McLelland, president and CEO of the bank, said it was negligent in not completely filling out its CTRs. But he stressed that the human errors involved only a handful of forms from a sampling of more than 400.

And McLelland said the errors were as minor as leaving off information such as a customer’s home address or place of employment. At small local banks like his, McLelland said, it’s common for employees to know customers so well that they might unassumingly take some basic information for granted.

“This had nothing to do with the safe and soundness of the bank,” McLelland said.

Since February, the bank has completely automated its CTR forms to eliminate the possibility of human error. McLelland said the “cease and desist” order was mandatory because the deficiencies were discovered during two separate audits.

The Fed has recently stepped up its Bank Secrecy enforcement in the Midwest in an effort to nab crooks who’ve fled the spotlight of big city banks.