In a study expected to be issued Feb. 21, the Government Accountability Office is expected to conclude that CTRs filed by financial institutions provide essential information for law enforcement investigations, delivering a blow to industry calls for reporting relief.
As any compliance officer knows, vetting a banking correspondent relationship is no simple matter. Initial evaluations of another institution's anti-money laundering program can be long, the cost high and reviews perpetual. Three consultants talk about best practices in correspondent banking.
The growth in suspicious activity reports (SARs) submitted by financial institutions continued to slow at the end of last year, as depository institutions gained experience in the filing process, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said.
U.S. banks with more than $20 billion in assets are assigning an average 33 employees to fulfill their Bank Secrecy Act compliance obligations, according a survey released Sunday at the American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference in Atlanta.
RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. failed to establish written procedures for filing suspicious activity reports, adequately review transaction structuring or establish adequate monitoring systems so it could act on exceptions identified by the firm's AML department, according to the order.