Updated Feb 11, 2011 04:30PM

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/51235852-79/bank-zions-suspicious-money.html.csp

Two federal agencies have slapped Zions Bank with multimillion-dollar civil penalties for failing to monitor suspicious wire transfers of billions of dollars related to transactions that may have involved drug trafficking and other crimes.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday said it imposed an $8 million penalty against Zions for shortcomings in its anti-money laundering controls — violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA Patriot Act.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — a Treasury Department agency involved in fighting money laundering — also fined Salt Lake City-based Zions $8 million but said the government would be satisfied by a single payment of $8 million.

“The bank is supposed to file suspicious activity reports if they find suspicious activity, and the bank failed to file those on a timely basis,” OCC spokesman Dick DeBuck said.

“The regulations also require the bank to monitor this wire activity, and the bank did not do that, either.”

Zions did not admit or deny the allegations spelled out in separate documents issued by the OCC and the Financial Crimes Network.

In a statement, CEO Scott Anderson said the bank takes “very seriously our obligations to comply with federal laws and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act.”

Anderson said Zions has closed down the business unit handling the money transfers and has been cooperating fully with regulators.