News

More severe penalties may lie in wait for financial institutions deemed to have deficient compliance programs under an EU proposal to tackle money laundering, say sources. The plan by the European Commission would lower the threshold at which businesses could be held liable for facilitating money laundering, require member-states to incorporate a common set of 22 predicate offenses to the crime into their national statutes and establish a minimum sentence that can be imposed against persons convicted of it. That financial institutions already must observe anti-money laundering regulations and identify "red flags" generated by the crime will expose them to...