New York Battles `Invalid' Regulator Switch by Tokyo Bank

  • Regulator Vullo challenges OCC license for Bank of Tokyo-MUFJ
  • ‘Regulatory arbitrage’ shouldn’t erase past misdeeds: Vullo
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
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New York isn’t going to let Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. slip out of its regulatory oversight without fighting back.

The state’s banking regulator, Maria Vullo, said in a legal filing late Wednesday that the Tokyo lender’s request last year to shift regulators -- trading its state license for a federal one -- was granted arbitrarily and unlawfully. Accusing the bank of trying to avoid the consequences of its misconduct in New York, she asked a federal judge in Manhattan to allow the agency to fine the Tokyo lender for recent compliance violations.