U.S. national banks must formally declare their risk limits and ensure the independence of their boards of directors, the Treasury Department ruled Thursday.
Federal examiners are requiring bank boards of directors to be more deeply involved in their institutions' anti-money laundering programs, say compliance officers who have recently faced regulatory audits.
The International Monetary Fund is launching a donor-supported trust fund to assist countries in implementing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing legislation and programs.
The Federal Depositors Insurance Corp. issued cease-and-desist orders against two banks in November over lax due diligence in their anti-money laundering programs, the agency said Monday.
Federal regulators are not giving banks any free passes when it comes to anti-money laundering compliance despite a flurry of loan-related enforcement actions, according to an analysis of recent penalty orders.
As the general knowledge of anti-money laundering compliance has risen in recent years, financial regulators have expected their financial institutions to place greater emphasis on training, say compliance consultants.
Compliance consultants say candid warnings about the dangers of AML failures, coupled with training sessions peppered with some history and compelling anecdotes, will go along way in keeping directors focused on their AML responsibilities.
U.S. banks with more than $20 billion in assets are assigning an average 33 employees to fulfill their Bank Secrecy Act compliance obligations, according a survey released Sunday at the American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference in Atlanta.
RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. failed to establish written procedures for filing suspicious activity reports, adequately review transaction structuring or establish adequate monitoring systems so it could act on exceptions identified by the firm's AML department, according to the order.