News
FinCEN’s Registration Requirement Gives Banks One More Reason to Say No to Foreign MSBs
By Brian Monroe
printAs many as a half dozen banks have severed relationships with foreign money services businesses for failing to register with the U.S. Treasury Department under rules that took effect earlier this year, say compliance professionals. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued the final rules in July 2011, with a compliance date of January, to amend the definition of money services businesses (MSBs) in order to subject foreign operations to anti-money laundering (AML) requirements. The change was made to address the fact that foreign MSBs could do business in the United States, including through online portals, even though they had...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
San Francisco-based AirBnB isn't exactly what springs to mind when thinking of money services businesses, but the 6-year-old company deemed itself just that last year by registering with the U.S. Treasury Department.
When FinCEN restructured its reporting hierarchy, the bureau signaled a subtle but important shift for banks: some of the energy it had once spent toward improving compliance would now serve to penalize regulatory violators, says former Assistant Director for the Office of Compliance Tom Fleming.
Looking for entrée into a financial market that has been reluctant to bank them, multiple Argentine money services businesses have applied for American accounts under false pretenses, say industry advisors.
The U.S. government's financial intelligence unit will resume an abandoned practice of fining banks for Bank Secrecy Act violations apart from the enforcement actions it works on with federal regulators, say sources.
A Mexican currency exchange house that registered with the U.S. Treasury Department manipulated currency declaration reports in efforts to launder tens of millions of dollars of drug profits, according to court documents.
Money services businesses in Quebec are struggling to deal with the impact of unprecedented provincial registration and anti-money laundering requirements that took effect this year, say analysts.
A 2008 investigation of Colombian cash couriers by customs officials and the U.S. Justice Department that made headlines for its ties to European cocaine sales had a lesser known result: Bank Secrecy Act regulations.
A U.S. Treasury Department rule finalized in 2011 has prompted foreign money services businesses to incorporate affiliates in the United States in an effort to retain access to American banks.
A Miami bank will pay nearly $11 million for maintaining accounts for over a decade for high-risk Mexican currency exchange houses linked to drug traffickers, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.
The U.S. Treasury Department Monday imposed new compliance duties on foreign money remitters and other businesses that serve U.S. clients as part of broader efforts to track global illicit finance.
A Utah bank must pay $8 million for failing to report billions of dollars in suspicious remote deposits by high-risk, Mexican currency exchange clients, the U.S. Treasury Department said Friday.
A Miami-based bank is expected to agree to pay between $10 million and $15 million to the U.S. government in the next month for Bank Secrecy Act violations, according to individuals familiar with the matter.
Wells Fargo & Co., the parent company of Wachovia Bank, will pay $160 million to settle anti-money laundering compliance problems tied to accounts with Mexican currency exchange companies, the company said Wednesday.
An expected settlement between the U.S. Justice Department and Wachovia Bank over lax anti-money laundering policies is highlighting the compliance risks of doing business with Mexican currency exchange companies.
A U.S. Treasury Department proposal that would potentially apply U.S. anti-money laundering regulations to hundreds of thousands of foreign money services businesses would be virtually "unenforceable," according to compliance consultants.
Bank of America acknowledged Wednesday that its lax policies allowed South American money transmitters to funnel $3 billion through a Manhattan branch and agreed to pay $7.5 million in a settlement with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.