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American Express AML Case Offers Important Compliance Lessons, Consultants Say

By Brian Orsak

Maybe it helps to put a pretty face on an ugly week. On Monday, the same day American Express Co. was ordered to pay the largest anti-money laundering related penalty assessed against a U.S. financial institution, the company said it had hired pop singer Beyonc?© Knowles to be its celebrity representative. But the bad news didn't end with that $65 million penalty: on Tuesday the company's American Express Bank Ltd. unit reached an agreement with the New York State Banking Department to improve its AML regime. That agreement requires the unit to improve its suspicious activity reporting and customer due...

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