Report: TD Bank Chief Compliance Officer Monica Kowal Leaves Job

TD Bank’s chief compliance officer, Monica Kowal, has reportedly left the bank.

Kowal left the bank during the past week, and an internal memo that announced the move in late June did not mention a reason, Reuters reported Sunday (July 7), citing the memo.

TD Bank did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Kowal, who had been with the bank since 2017, will be succeeded by Deputy Chief Compliance Officer Erin Morrow, according to the report.

Morrow joined TD Bank in January from Citi, where she had been for more than 10 years, per the report.

This report comes about six weeks after it was reported that TD Bank had fired more than a dozen employees and begun an overhaul of its processes as part of its efforts to address earlier failings in its anti-money laundering (AML) program.

The bank began this comprehensive overhaul of its AML practices amid regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges focused on problems with its AML program, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 23.

To address the shortcomings in its AML program, TD Bank brought in top talent with experience in transforming and leading AML programs at major banks, cooperated closely with authorities by providing documentation and internal video recordings related to the matter, and invested 500 million Canadian dollars (about $365 million) in its AML program, per the report.

On June 5, Bloomberg reported that TD Bank could be facing fines of up to $4 billion in relation to money-laundering probes in the United States alone.

Investigations by U.S. authorities revealed cases involving a former TD Bank branch employee in Florida who allegedly accepted bribes to help clients move millions of dollars to Colombia, as well as a former employee in New York who admitted to defrauding a customer by circumventing the bank’s compliance measures.

In a statement provided to PYMNTS on June 4, a bank spokesperson said: “When we became aware of these matters, we took action against these employees, coordinated efforts with the DOJ [Department of Justice], and have supported their work to bring these criminals to justice. More broadly, where our program was ineffective, we have held those leaders accountable and are taking action to drive the changes and meet our obligations.”