AML OVERTIME LAWSUITS

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers are required to pay employees overtime pay for all hours worked over forty per workweek. Bank Secrecy Act – Anti-Money Laundering (“BSA / AML”) employees are typically classified by their employers, banks and other financial institutions, as “exempt” from overtime pay, and paid a salary regardless of the number of hours they work. However, these employees often have been misclassified and could be owed overtime compensation.

Bank Secrecy Act – Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, Investigators, and Officers are responsible for compliance with regulations related to the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act (“CFTRA”), also known as the Bank Secrecy Act “(BSA”). Specifically, BSA and AML employees monitor transactions for “suspicious activity” related to money laundering attempts, unlawful monetary transactions, and terrorist financing. Often Bank Secrecy Act – Anti-Money Laundering employees are tasked with implementing compliance parameters, and then monitoring activity falling outside the set parameters. BSA and AML employees may create a computerized system that can automatically track such transactions.

However, Investigators, Specialists, and Officers typically do not have authority to “dig” further into the activity beyond what they report. Additionally, these employees often are not performing solely compliance work. Instead, Investigators and Officers often spend much, if not all, of their time performing data entry and clerical tasks.

Banks and other financial institutions require Bank Secrecy Act – Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, Investigators, and Officers Investigators to produce reports of their findings within strict deadlines set by their employers. Often, these assignments cannot be completed within a typical 40-hour workweek, thus requiring employees to work “overtime,” over 40 hours in a work week. However, banks and other financial institutions generally misclassify Bank Secrecy Act – Anti-Money Laundering employees as being exempt from overtime pay.

Exemptions from the FLSA Overtime Requirements

Certain employees may be exempt from receiving and overtime pay if they meet certain criteria under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Thus, under the FLSA, employees are considered either “exempt” or “non-exempt” from the Act’s overtime pay requirements. The FLSA provides an exemption for employees employed as a bona fide executive, an administrative employee, a professional, and an outside sales employee. Each exemption has specific requirements that an employer must meet to classify an employee as exempt.

Typically, however, Bank Secrecy Act – Anti-Money Laundering employees do not fall within any of these categories required to be exempt from overtime. Therefore, Bank Secrecy Act – Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, Investigators, and Officers may be entitled to unpaid overtime for all hours worked over 40 hours per work week.

Examples of Misclassified Employees:

Job titles of employees working with the Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering, and other financial institution regulations, that are often misclassified include: officers, investigators, specialists, quality assurance specialists, A&R analysts, data analysts, risk managers, AML compliance analysts, solutions analysts, financial reporting analysts, implementation analysts, and other compliance officers. Even employees classified as independent contractors may be owed overtime. There have been many recent cases regarding the misclassification of employees. Examples include:

• Citigroup’s Anti-Money Laundering Division paid $1.8 million in unpaid overtime for misclassifying its analysts as exempt from overtime under the administrative exemption.
• Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering Investigators at Regions bank filed a lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime, alleging they were misclassified as exempt from overtime due to their lack of authority and decision-making independence in investigations.
• Employees placed within Anti-Money Laundering divisions at Citibank affiliates by a staffing agency settled for $1.08 million for unpaid overtime. Class members of the lawsuit received an average net settlement payment of $17,720.
• Recently, salaried employees hired as Enhanced Due Diligence (“EDD”) Investigators to do compliance and analytic work at M&T Bank, but rather performed routine clerical work and data entry, filed a lawsuit against M&T Bank seeing unpaid overtime compensation.

If you are a current or former employee for a bank or other financial institution, you may have been misclassified at some point during your employment, and could be entitled to overtime pay. Please give one of the employment attorneys at Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP a call for a free phone consultation. An experienced attorney will address your concerns and discuss whether you have a wage claim. The phone number is (212) 300-0375, or visit our website for more information at fslawfirm.com.