Bankers are more frequently rejecting law enforcement requests to keep open accounts held for the targets of criminal probes despite assurances that the institutions won't be penalized for subsequent transactions, say sources.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is merging its counterterrorism and anti-narcotics divisions, a move expected to streamline related investigations.
In the push by global governments for greater financial transparency and greater privacy guarantees, large financial institutions are left struggling to reconcile these two competing principles. The conflict is most striking for banks dealing with so-called secrecy jurisdictions.
Getting all the necessary know-your-customer information from foreign nationals who are private banking clients can be a daunting task, in part because many of the wealthy individuals who use these services are highly secretive.
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