PwC pays $25m for changing report on wire stripping at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi

PricewaterhouseCoopers Regulatory Advisory Services will pay a $25m penalty to the State of New York and not undertake consulting assignments for financial institutions supervised by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for 24 months following its alteration of a report to regulators on wire stripping by Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi (BTMU). [1] The NYDFS found that PwC had responded to pressure from BTMU executives to change a “historical transaction review” (HTR) report on the bank’s treatment of wire transfers for US-sanctioned entities from Iran, Sudan, Myanmar as well as for some on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) list. In June 2013, BTMU was fined $250m by NYDFS for clearing some 28,000 US dollar payments, totalling approximately $100bn, between 2002 and 2007. [2]