AGRICULTURAL Bank of China Ltd. (AgBank), China’s third-largest bank, will pay a US$215 million penalty for violating New York state’s anti-money laundering law, the state’s financial regulator said Friday.

    Bank officials engaged in “intentional wrongdoing,” including masking possibly suspicious transactions at its New York branch. Some transactions involved parties which are subject to U.S. sanctions, the New York State Department of Financial Services said.

    The bank also “silenced” the branch’s chief compliance officer, who raised concerns to managers about an “alarming” pattern of suspicious financial transactions, the U.S. regulator said. Among the transactions were payments from Yemen to Chinese companies and “unusually large” transfers between Chinese and Russian companies.

    The bank, in a consent order with the regulator, agreed to put in an independent monitor to address “serious deficiencies,” the regulator said.

    AgBank representatives in New York didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Two calls to the company’s Beijing press office and a press officer’s mobile phone went unanswered outside business hours Saturday.

    The bank holds total assets of about US$2.8 trillion, including around US$9.5 billion at the New York branch, New York state officials said.

    Since 2013, the New York branch has cleared U.S. dollar transactions involving foreign correspondent banks in “rapidly increasing volumes,” according to the consent order.

    In dollar clearing, transactions in foreign currencies between parties are satisfied in U.S. dollars using a U.S.-based bank.

    (SD-Agencies)