The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has terminated a consent order against Blue Ridge Bank over the bank’s money laundering controls, the Richmond, Virginia-based lender announced Thursday.
The consent order, issued in January 2024, addressed the fintech-focused bank’s alleged continuous failure to establish and maintain a strong and well-staffed Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance program.
The OCC alleged Blue Ridge’s BSA/AML program experienced systemic internal controls breakdowns and had weak independent testing, and that the bank failed to correct problems the regulator called out in September 2022, when it ordered the lender to fortify its fintech partnerships.
To address the issues within the consent order and prior regulatory action, Blue Ridge hired a “completely new risk management team,” including new chief risk and compliance officers and a new BSA officer, CEO Billy Beale told Banking Dive.
“These were all experienced people that came from much larger banks than Blue Ridge. They knew what they were doing, and got the problem solved really pretty quickly,” he said.
Beale credited the brevity of the order’s duration – 22 months – to “being able to hire the right people.”
Beale took the helm at the bank in May 2023 after a five-decade-long banking career, which included CEO of Richmond, Virginia-based Community Bankers’ Bank and, previously, Union Bank & Trust, a predecessor to Atlantic Union, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In that time, Beale said, he’d never worked at a bank that faced “so much as [a memo of understanding] or written agreement, let alone consent order,” and it’s “nice to have it over with.”
“Sometimes you think you're spending more time working for regulators and answering their questions and spending time with them than you are with your own customers,” he said. “It would just be nice to get back to the banking business.”
With the consent order closed – and lessened capital requirements – Blue Ridge has the “opportunity to better manage that capital,” Beale said, and the capability of opening new branches.
“The biggest thing – and it’s maybe harder to quantify – I think our customers will feel better about us, and our prospects will feel better about us and it’ll make recruiting new bankers to join our team easier,” Beale said.
Blue Ridge has recently turned its attention toward bettering the customer experience, Beale said. This year, the bank upgraded its treasury management platform and replaced cash dispensing machines with full-service ATMs. Early next year, the lender will roll out an online account opening platform, he said.
An OCC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
