Prompted by signs that criminals are increasingly exploiting prepaid cards, federal and state investigators are turning to a handful of recent legal decisions to justify reading the value held on the instruments, sources say.
As U.S. officials work to shield American prepaid cards from abuse by financial crooks, foreign-issued stored value products remain a relatively easy avenue to move money into the United States anonymously.
Government often moves slowly and (hopefully) deliberatively, but one might wonder whatever happened to those pre-paid card readers being tested along U.S. borders.
Displeased with proposed regulations, federal and state law enforcement officials are asking lawmakers and the U.S. Treasury Department to strengthen controls on the cross-border movement of prepaid access products.
Restricting transfers between unrelated individuals and requiring IDs to load value are among over a dozen ways financial institutions can limit compliance risks with prepaid access products, an association of banks said Friday.