SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., in Tokyo. Photo: Akio Kon/Bloomberg

Veteran in-house counsel and compliance whisperer Andre Burrell has joined Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. in its effort to bring its New York branch into compliance with requirements demanded last week by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Burrell left his job at Microsoft Corp. to begin this month in New York as managing director and Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering officer for Sumitomo's Americas division. Corporate Counsel spoke briefly with Burrell on Tuesday confirming his appointment, but he was not immediately available for an interview.

Tokyo-based Sumitomo brought in Burrell after federal bank examiners discovered deficiencies in the New York branch's compliance systems. On April 25 Sumitomo entered a written agreement with the regulators to “improve its New York branch's program for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and related U.S. anti-money laundering laws and regulations, which were found to be inadequate by the Federal Reserve Bank.”

In a statement, the bank said it “has already taken actions to improve compliance with U.S. requirements and the bank is fully committed to complying with all of the terms set forth in the written agreement.” It did not receive a financial penalty.

Burrell's work is cut out for him because the Fed agreement lists more than seven pages of requirements, and the bank consented to complying “with each and every provision of this agreement.”

The document says within 60 days of the deal, the bank and the branch must jointly submit a plan to enhance corporate governance and management oversight; upgrade its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering compliance program; enhance customer due diligence; ensure timely and accurate suspicious activity monitoring and reporting; and do independent testing of the branch's compliance with all requirements.

Each of those areas in the agreement contains lengthy components imposing numerous requirements. The written plan “shall contain a timeline for full implementation of the plan or program with specific deadlines for the completion of each component,” according to the document.

The agreement also states the bank and branch “shall provide for management of the branch's BSA/AML compliance program by a qualified compliance officer, who is given full autonomy, independence, and responsibility for implementing and maintaining an effective BSA/AML compliance program … , has meaningful decision-making authority and is supported by adequate staffing levels and resources.”

Enter Burrell, who began his career in 1996 as an attorney at the New York Fed, and in 2002 became deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer of Independent Community Bank of New York, according to his bio on LinkedIn. He joined Deloitte Financial Advisory Services in 2006 as a senior manager, heading projects at international banks involving anti-money laundering and Office of Foreign Assets Control violations and remediation efforts.

In 2008, Burrell was named chief compliance officer at Israel Discount Bank of New York, where he led the bank through the lifting of two cease and desist orders and a deferred prosecution agreement.

In 2012, while still at Israel Discount Bank, he worked with the Central Bank of Kenya and the Kenyan telecom industry on integrating anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism programs into cellphone payment systems.

Burrell left Israel Discount Bank in 2015 for Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, where he worked the last four years. He served first as senior director of compliance, and then as its strategy leader on cloud solutions for banking and capital markets fighting financial crime.