A pair of New York federal lawmakers Wednesday will reintroduce legislation designed to eliminate the purported ease with which U.S. corporate entities can be used to launder illicit proceeds.
A legislative proposal that would empower the IRS to assign Employee Identification Numbers to all American corporations is drawing congressional support, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
On the eve of key behind-the-scenes talks on the Fourth European Union Anti-Money Laundering Directive, the rift over proposals for the public register of trusts has widened between the United Kingdom and Europe.
Intergovernmental plans to better identify corporate owners will do little to thwart financial crooks, even at great cost to banks and governments, according to an academic report on offshore financial flows.
European Union nations may still have to name the owners of corporations but they won't necessarily do so publicly, under the economic bloc's latest iteration of an anti-money laundering proposal.
Even with the parliamentary passage of the EU's anti-money laundering directive last month, tough debates lie ahead for the economic bloc's plans to better identify financial criminals, say observers.
Compliance with beneficial ownership standards will be one of the top priorities for Financial Action Task Force examiners during the group's next round of jurisdictional reviews, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
The Financial Action Task Force is weighing whether to ask jurisdictions to loosen their privacy laws and require companies to retain data on their owners, among other changes to the group's standards.
The chairman of the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will reintroduce a measure that would require company formation agents to record beneficial ownership data, a government official said Tuesday.
Although the Czech Republic has added a "broader coverage of money laundering in the criminal code, it is difficult to conclude that it is sound and consistent," Moneyval, a group associated with the Financial Action Task Force, said in an evaluation.
The reduce the threat of shell companies, banks must ask questions to understand the nature of any business opening an account and should seek proof that the business produces something, says David Caruso, an AML compliance expert.