News
FATF Weighing New Beneficial Ownership, Data Privacy Suggestions
By Brian Monroe
printThe Financial Action Task Force is weighing whether to ask jurisdictions to loosen their privacy laws and require companies to retain data on their owners, among other changes to the group's standards. The potential changes to the group's 49 recommendations and separate guidance would be in addition to revisions proposed in October, the organization said in a June 27 consultation paper. The Paris-based organization, known as FATF, is expected to decide on dozens of proposed changes to its widely-adopted anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing standards by February. Should the group adopt the latest plan, it would call on its...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
As the U.S. Treasury Department readies beneficial ownership rules for financial institutions, senators are weighing the introduction of two competing corporate transparency bills that would require disclosures by private companies.
This time last December, one might reasonably have expected that 2014 would be a year of modest changes for the anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance sector. Then came JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas and a convoy of Russian tanks to quash that notion.
Despite an ongoing push for greater financial transparency, few EU nations have signaled a willingness to require corporations and trusts to identify their owners, a nongovernmental group said in a report.
The U.K. is weighing amendments to its plan for a public registry of corporate owners that would allow individuals who control the firms to better protect their personal data.
A global anti-money laundering group Monday outlined how countries should identify corporate owners in an effort to stop criminals from hiding behind shell companies and other legal entities.
The proposed customer due diligence rule that was released July 30 was notable for what it didn't require, perhaps even more than for what it did.
Intergovernmental plans to better identify corporate owners will do little to thwart financial crooks, even at great cost to banks and governments, according to an academic report on offshore financial flows.
British parliamentarians advanced a measure Wednesday that would create the country's first registry of corporate owners as part of a larger effort to shine light on opaque shell companies.
European Union nations may still have to name the owners of corporations but they won't necessarily do so publicly, under the economic bloc's latest iteration of an anti-money laundering proposal.
Even with the parliamentary passage of the EU's anti-money laundering directive last month, tough debates lie ahead for the economic bloc's plans to better identify financial criminals, say observers.
British officials are set to propose legislation that would require private corporations and limited liability partnerships to publicly disclose their individual owners, a U.K. minister said Monday.
A group of European Parliament members will soon weigh in on whether lawmakers should create an EU-wide police force and more closely cooperate on border security to stem financial crime, according to Bill Newton Dunn, a British lawmaker.
A new grading system by an intergovernmental group on how effectively jurisdictions fight money laundering and terrorist financing is likely to compel global financial institutions to rethink their geographic risk-rankings.
A "quantum leap" in efforts to improve global financial transparency, including the passage of a U.S. anti-tax evasion law, has mitigated the compliance risks of offshore banking centers in recent years, says Martin Livingston, a partner at the Cayman Islands branch of law firm Maples and Calder.
A U.S. Treasury Department proposal to toughen customer due diligence obligations for banks would increase compliance costs while providing only minimal benefit to law enforcement, according to industry comment letters.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it was considering imposing customer due diligence currently applied to private banking and correspondent accounts to all accountholders at depository institutions.
The world's top financial crime watchdog Thursday disclosed revisions to its blacklists and its widely-cited standards on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
The U.S. Treasury Department will clarify the customer due diligence obligations that financial institutions must observe when opening accounts for businesses, a department official told lawmakers Wednesday.
The world's most influential advocate of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing regulations will call for greater scrutiny of political figures and tax crimes next week, say sources.
As the United States continues its crackdown on foreign banks that aid American tax evaders, the role compliance officers can play in reporting the crime remains unclear, say bankers.