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US Officials Ask Banks to Stop Shunning MSBs
By Colby Adams and Brian Orsak
printNot all money transmitters are overly vulnerable to money launderers and terrorist financiers and banks should refrain from automatically closing their accounts, U.S. Treasury Department officials said Monday. In remarks delivered at the ABA/ABA Money Laundering Enforcement Conference, U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said that the illicit finance risks posed by money services business (MSB) clients should be measured by banks "on a case-by-case basis" and that "even those deemed high-risk" could be managed with proper controls. To stop the "wholesale termination" of MSB accounts within a wider trend of "de-risking," U.S. officials will clarify regulatory...
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