By Nivedita Balu
Toronto (Reuters) – TD bank announced Thursday that Herbert Mazariegos, World Director of the Fight against money laundering, resigned immediately, while the bank took corrective measures after being fined by American regulators for breach of conformity.
Mazariegos joined TD in November 2023 after working at the Banque de Montréal, where he held the post of chief of money laundering for more than four years. He was hired as part of TD’s efforts to reorganize his risk management team and compliance.
Mazariegos, hired while the outgoing CEO Bharat Masrani was in command, will be replaced by Jacqueline Sanjuas, head of the risk management of financial crime in the United States at TD, the bank said.
Sean Parker, a Toronto expert in the money laundering sector, said TD had attenuated the blow by hiring Sanjuas, who joined the bank in January 2024 and has two decades of experience in compliance and risk management.
Stephen Joyce, vice-president, implementation and authorization of the transformation of risk management linked to financial crime, will assume the role of acting chief of risk management linked to financial crime for Canadian and international operations of TD, excluding the United States.
Joyce reports to Sanjuas.
“I am convinced that these changes will position the management of the risks of financial crime on the path of success,” said risk director, Ajai Bambawale, in a note addressed to staff on Thursday, thanking Mazariegos for his “contributions … during A difficult period “.
Bambawale said in the note that the departure of Mazariegos was based on a mutual agreement.
TD faces an asset ceiling and a penalty of 3 billion dollars by American regulators following an investigation by American agencies on the lender’s anti-silver-whiteness program that led to a loss Rare quarterly and forced her to suspend her forecasts.
The lender encountered problems with American regulators because of the failures of his risk and compliance program, which has given rise to a multitude of illicit activities, fentanyl traffic and narcotics to financing terrorism.
TD announced last week that Masrani, who assumed full responsibility for failures in the fight against money laundering, would resign in February, more than two months earlier than the date initially planned for his retirement.