News
FinCEN Seeks Nominees for 11 Seats on Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group
By Matt Squire
printThe U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is looking for financial institutions and trade groups to fill vacancies on a panel that gives feedback on transaction reporting rules. FinCEN is accepting nominations for 11 seats on the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group that become vacant early next year, the agency said in a noticed published Dec. 7 in the Federal Register. Nominations can be submitted through Jan. 8. The advisory group maintains about 50 standing members that also represent regulatory and law enforcement agencies, FinCEN spokeswoman Candice Pratsch said in a Dec. 7 interview. The advisory group was...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
The U.S. Justice Department has issued a rare letter exculpating a former top American Express banker fired in the wake of a multimillion-dollar anti-money laundering deferred prosecution agreement reached in August 2007.
A Milwaukee-based company sues American Express for failing to block illegal transactions and Royal Bank of Scotland discloses that the U.K. Financial Services Authority is investigating it, in this week's news roundup.
A former American Express compliance officer is facing an uphill battle in his efforts to win $7.5 million from the bank and an apology from the U.S. Justice Department, say lawyers.
A group of 90 American, Israeli and Canadian citizens are suing American Express Bank and Lebanese Canadian Bank for $650 million, alleging the institutions provided financial services to blacklisted terror group Hizbollah.
The $1.1 billion sale to U.K. bank Standard Chartered PLC follows enforcement actions issued in August requiring American Express Bank Ltd., the American Express private banking subsidiary, to pay $65 million in penalties and acknowledge its responsibility for AML and Bank Secrecy Act failures.
But the bad news continued this week for the company as its American Express Bank Ltd. unit reached an agreement on Tuesday with the New York State Banking Department to improve its AML regime.
A senior DEA official confirmed that the agency is investigating the company's Miami-based private banking unit and said the case involves money laundering schemes known as black market peso exchanges, according to a report slated for publication in the July issue of Forbes.
The private banking unit is overseen by the company's Miami-based American Express Bank International, and has been plagued by anti-money laundering related regulatory trouble for more than a decade.
American Express Co. has set aside $60 million for regulatory and legal matters related to a U.S. Justice Department investigation of anti-money laundering compliance programs at its private banking operation.