U.S. banks have dropped thousands of accounts controlled by pawnbrokers in the past 18 months over concerns that the financial services offered by the businesses are vulnerable to money laundering. The problems began as early as 2005 when risk-averse banks in Alabama, California, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New York and Texas began turning away or closing corporate accounts for pawnshops due to worries that the anti-money laundering (AML) controls at the businesses were inadequate, according to a U.S. Treasury Department official who asked not to be named. But in the past year-and-a-half, there has been a noticeable uptick in "bank discontinuance"...
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