Last month's confirmation hearing for Adam Szubin, who is seeking to become undersecretary for Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Crime, lacked the fireworks that might have been expected given the Republican majority's animosity toward the Obama administration's agreement with Iran.
A U.S. lawmaker is drafting legislation to prod governmental officials and financial institutions to better cooperate in efforts to stop human trafficking and smuggling.
The identification of suspicious transactions by financial institutions offers an important means of fighting human trafficking, the U.S. State Department said in a report Friday.
Arizona has granted the nation's largest money transmitter an additional three months to improve its anti-money laundering compliance program and avoid criminal prosecution.
State and federal measures designed to combat international human trafficking and child labor will obligate financial institutions to apply tougher due diligence standards to corporate accounts, a federal judge said Monday.
More than a dozen governments are working with the Financial Action Task Force to draft guidance on how to identify financial transactions tied to human trafficking, say individuals familiar with the matter.
Some of the country's largest banks are increasingly monitoring account activity for signs of possible human trafficking, according to individuals familiar with the initiatives.
Human trafficking profits are estimated to be between 10 and 40 billion dollars annually, but few people are taking the time to root out the related money laundering transactions, Dr. Louise Shelley told reporter Larissa Bernardes.
The case points to the difficulties that large money service businesses face in detecting compliance violations at associated stores, compliance consultants say.