The Royal Bank of Scotland will pay the United States $500 million over Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions violations committed by the now defunct ABN Amro, U.S. officials said Monday.
We never said compliance professionals had it easy, and 2010 doesn't look to be a year when things will be any better for the anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing industry.
Compliance officers at some of the world's largest financial institutions are concluding they need to create sanctions-specific programs to avoid regulatory penalties and tarnished reputations, according to a Deloitte survey released Monday.
Despite all the rhetoric, combating the networks that finance terrorism and criminal organizations is not a priority for the international community, according to Jimmy Gurulé, a law professor at Notre Dame.
New Year's Eve may have come and gone and all of the post-celebration headaches faded, but financial institutions are going to need many more months to recover from 2008.
The U.S. government does not expect financial institutions to bear the burden of identifying companies owned and controlled by individuals on its list of blocked foreign nationals, a U.S. Treasury Department official said Tuesday.
OFAC guidance issued last month essentially blocks business dealings with any entity at least 50 percent owned "directly or indirectly" by any person targeted by OFAC sanctions, whether or not the entity itself has been sanctioned.
United Roosevelt Savings Bank and Eurobank, in cease and desist orders issued Tuesday, were instructed to look for transactions that should have triggered currency transaction reports or suspicious activity reports. Both were cited for other deficiencies in their anti-money laundering programs.