A federal letter asking money services businesses to turn over data on their agents marks the first broad U.S. effort in 14 years to better understand the scope of the fractured money transmitter market.
Money services businesses are jumping through a new hoop to prove they have adequate anti-money laundering programs: in response to demands from banks, they are turning over copies of the independent reviews of their programs meant for regulators.
The number of suspicious activity reports filed by U.S. money services businesses declined by eight percent in 2008, the first drop in such reporting by any financial sector since 1997.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will share data on money service businesses with two state banking departments in an effort to streamline how it tests banks on Bank Secrecy Act compliance, the agencies said Monday.
Financial institutions should be looking for signs that any of their armored car customers has become involved in check cashing, which would qualify them as money services businesses and subject them to BSA requirements.