The United Kingdom needs to "do more" to crack down on money laundering and other types of economic crime, especially when proceeds are placed in banks or real estate, a senior government official said Monday, citing the soon-to-be- released, first-ever national risk assessment for money laundering.
Sometimes a decline in bank enforcement actions isn't a good thing, even for bankers. Such is the takeaway of a review of enforcement action data spanning back five years, during which the number of formal Bank Secrecy Act penalties fell nearly 20 percent while fines and regulatory demands grew.
In a year when the number of enforcement actions issued by federal financial regulators fell by nearly half, Bank Secrecy Act-related penalties earned an unusual distinction. They declined by less than 14 percent.
Fines and monetary settlements paid in 2012 by banks for anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing violations increased 131-fold from the previous year, ACAMS moneylaundering.com data shows.
The U.S. government's financial intelligence unit will resume an abandoned practice of fining banks for Bank Secrecy Act violations apart from the enforcement actions it works on with federal regulators, say sources.
Though none can predict the future, one thing in the AML world seems certain: the jobs of compliance officers won't get any easier in 2013.
U.K. financial regulators will likely only get tougher on British banks that violate anti-money laundering laws in the coming year, possibly going so far as to prosecute individuals, according to Jonathan Fisher QC, a London-based barrister.
A U.K. fine against a London-based private banking subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland underscores the risks financial institutions take when they allow their account managers to vet valued clients, say compliance officials.
Financial institutions operating in the U.K. could be among the first companies fined under a new British anti-bribery law, according to speakers at an anti-money laundering conference in Amsterdam Monday.
A stringent new British anti-bribery law will be implemented before the end of the year despite concerns from the business community and the Cameron government, according to the measure's authors.
U.S. financial institutions and other companies will have additional anti-money laundering and anti-bribery monitoring duties when a new U.K. law takes effect next year, according to a U.K. regulator.
A British anti-bribery bill expected to pass this month could increase the likelihood that U.S. financial institutions and other companies will face sizable monetary penalties for overseas deals, say consultants.