COMPLIANCE DEFICIENCIES CAN TRANSLATE INTO LOSS OF VALUE FOR PUBLICLY-TRADED BANKS

A quick look at NASDAQ quotes shows that the 25% hit that the price of stock of the Bancorp Inc., of Delaware, suffered when regulators landed hard upon it, for deficiencies in its compliance program, continues. Bancorp is a major player in the prepaid card industry, and the nature of the business requires a higher level of AML/CFT monitoring, lest your products end up facilitating financial crime or terrorism. One wonders whether the directors at this financial institution, whose stock is publicly traded, considered this when choosing to participate in high-risk business oveseas, which was probably against the advice of their compliance department.

Shares of Bancorp stock , which had come close to $20 per share, and were around $16 at the time that regulatory action was announced, immediately dropped to eleven dollars per share, and have been stuck there ever since. Add to this the fact that no less than nine law firms are out there trolling for clients who are minority shareholders, for the purpose of filing a class action against bank officers and directors responsible for the compliance deficiencies found by regulators. These events drive home the need to maintain a banking best practices level compliance program, lest you be targeted, not only by regulators, but by ambitious civil law firms.