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Banks That Process Transactions for Funds, Insurers, Inherit AML Challenge
By Matt Squire
printBanks that take on administrative and back office functions for insurance and mutual fund companies risk inheriting some difficult anti-money laundering reporting responsibilities. Like banks and other financial institutions, insurers and funds must report certain large and suspicious transactions by customers. But rather than filing currency transaction reports, these institutions, along with other trades and businesses, must report the transactions to the Internal Revenue Service on Form 8300. Banking institutions that process transactions for such entities inherit these reporting responsibilities. To do so, banks need to identify the fund and insurance company customers initiating the underlying transactions. That is no...
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The U.S. Treasury Department has extended a deadline on how long mutual funds have to record personal data for investigators on their clients who send or receive over $3,000.
The Financial Action Task Force reiterated its call Monday for anti-money laundering controls by life insurance companies in a report outlining how the industry can apply risk-based checks.
The U.S. Treasury Department proposed Friday to scale back the anti-money laundering reporting duties for mutual funds by requiring that they use the same currency transaction reports as banks.
Brian Mannion, of the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, spoke with reporter Larissa Bernardes about the possibility of insurance companies receiving enforcement actions, the compliance differences between banks and insurance products and the challenge of independent agent training.
The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission has released an online research guide to help mutual fund companies better detect money laundering on the heels of a similar reference tool crafted last year to aid broker-dealers.
Insurers filed 642 suspicious activity reports between May 2, 2006, and May 1, 2007, the first year they were required to do so, the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in a report issued Tuesday.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a rule confirming that precious metals dealers and insurance companies are required to maintain anti-money laundering programs.
The growing secondary market for life insurance policies remains a largely overlooked means for money launderers to place money in U.S. banks.
Insurers were on pace to file 280 for the year ended this month, according to a FinCEN study issued last week. That compares with 5,723 SARs submitted by money services businesses in 2002, and 4,267 by securities and futures dealers in 2003, the first years those industries had to file the reports.
Bob Walsh, v.p. of anti-money laundering compliance for AXA Financial, says insurance companies uncertain about their Bank Secrecy Act responsibilities face a number of challenges related to the newness of the requirements and the fact the industry has old systems in place to help them comply.