News

Financial institutions remain reluctant to share private data on clients and transactions with each other despite existing legal protections out of fear that they might nevertheless expose themselves to civil or criminal liability, according to sources. Under section 314(b) of the Patriot Act, U.S.-based banks, money services businesses, casinos, brokerages and other regulated firms can seek to supplement their compliance efforts by voluntarily and securely exchanging financial intelligence on clients and jurisdictions they believe may be funding terrorists or laundering money. The program technically provides safe harbor to those who exchange personally identifiable data that they are otherwise barred from...