(Adds China corruption watchdog statement)
WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve onTuesday told China Construction Bank Corp to ramp upits anti-money laundering framework, the first enforcementaction by the U.S. central bank against one of China's fourlargest state-owned banks.
Within 60 days, the bank should submit plans for complianceprograms for anti-money laundering controls, customer duediligence programs, and methods for spotting suspicioustransactions, the Fed said.
Mildred Harper, chief compliance officer for CCB's New Yorkbranch, confirmed the enforcement action.
It is the first time the Fed has taken an enforcement actionagainst CCB, according to the Fed's website, where a databaseshowed no similar enforcement actions for any of the three otherlarge Chinese banks: Bank of China, Industrial andCommercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank ofChina.
The Fed did not impose a fine or other sanctions on thebank, and did not identify what problems CCB was facing.
A tough U.S. policy has found high-profile violators amongbanks failing to enforce compliance in recent years.
China's corruption watchdog said on Wednesday thatinspection teams had recently started audits of four branches ofCCB, although it did not mention the enforcement action or moneylaundering.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in astatement on its website the audits would cover "leaders' abuseof power for personal enrichment, abuse of power for owninterests, corruption and other violations of discipline".
In July, 2014, BNP Paribas pleaded guilty to twocriminal charges and agreed to pay almost $9 billion to resolveaccusations it violated U.S. sanctions against countries such asSudan, Cuba and Iran.
Late in 2012, HSBC Holdings Plc paid a $1.9 billionfine to U.S. authorities, a record at the time, for allowingitself to be used to launder drug money from Mexico's Sinaloacartel and Colombia's Norte del Valle cartel. (Reporting by Douwe Miedema; Additional reporting by Engen Thamin Shanghai; Editing by David Gregorio and Stephen Coates)