News
From the Editor: A Good Start
By Kieran Beer
printMaybe it's the thing you're supposed to say when you get a new job and have responsibility for a lot of people. Still, it's a good thing to be able to say. "I have met with over 130 employees and will continue those meetings until I have met with each and every one of our more than 300 employees," said Jennifer Calvery, the new Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) director. Speaking at the American Bankers Association's and American Bar Association's 24th annual anti-money laundering conference in Washington D.C., Calvery said a number of things that bode well for the future...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
Bankers are asking the U.S. Treasury Department's financial intelligence unit to allow for batch filings of currency reports and relax the dollar threshold at which they must identify suspected frauds.
In the wake of Senate hearings on HSBC and New York State's $340 million settlement with Standard Chartered, the popular press is giving anti-money laundering issues a lot more attention. That's good and bad news for compliance officials.
It's not a new message, but the world's governments are counting on the private sector to make sanctions against Iran (and other countries) work.
A 2010 agreement by Western Union to share data with Arizona and other Southwestern states is the catalyst for a major AML prosecution that came to light Thursday.
If you get past the acronyms and numbing data points with bar charts, there are some interesting, if unfortunate, stories contained in the latest from Canada's financial intelligence unit.
Okay, maybe not all. But a Wednesday webinar will shed light on the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's advanced notice of proposed rulemaking that details new customer due diligence requirements, particularly with regard to beneficial ownership.
Not only can banks in the UK expect a number of anti-money laundering enforcement actions from the Financial Securities Authority, despite the fact the agency shuts down next year, investment banks and individuals in financial services can also expect a host of non-AML enforcement actions.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (Finra), which is responsible for ensuring that securities firms have effective anti-money laundering programs in place, had a tough time doing that in 2011 after being denied access to suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by the firms it oversees.
Rumors of its death are not exaggerated, but with its record penalty against Coutts & Co this week the Financial Services Authority appears ready to stay calm and carry on, only more so. The authority is likely to be issuing AML penalties right up until the time of its mandated demise in 2013.
Identifying good guys and bad guys in real life is complicated: court documents released this month in connection with investors' lawsuits against the banks that served Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein don't always make it clear - except with regard to Rothstein himself - who the villains are.