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The U.S. Justice Department's plan to pursue harsher sentences against drug traffickers and other narcotics-related activity should prompt financial institutions to reassess the risks posed by providing services to state-authorized cannabis businesses, say sources.
The U.S. Justice Department's policy of withholding enforcement of national laws against state-authorized, marijuana-related commerce that doesn't involve organized crime, sales to minors and other federal "priorities" will likely continue under President-elect Donald Trump.
Brokerages, investors and banks are executing trades of dozens of marijuana firms listed on federally-supervised stock exchanges despite a dearth of official guidance on whether the transactions violate U.S. rules against money laundering.
U.S. broker-dealers are far more likely than depository institutions to take on state-sanctioned cannabis firms as clients, according to Alison Jimenez, president of Florida-based consultancy Dynamic Securities Analytics, Inc.
The U.S. Justice Department will draft a plan to more effectively discern whether state and local governments are effectively enforcing federal priorities for state-licensed cannabis sales, a governmental watchdog said Monday.
A U.S. district court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to force financial regulators to allow a Colorado credit union to transfer money from state-licensed cannabis companies in violation of federal law.
This time last December, one might reasonably have expected that 2014 would be a year of modest changes for the anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance sector. Then came JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas and a convoy of Russian tanks to quash that notion.
A little-noticed amendment to a U.S. appropriations bill could do what lawmakers and lobbying groups alike have failed to do: ensure that banks don't pay for taking on state-licensed cannabis companies.
The nation's financial intelligence unit will weigh whether additional guidance is needed on how banks should treat clients tangentially or directly associated with state-sanctioned marijuana dispensaries, according to sources.
Drug interdictions, illicit money seizures and suspicious bank wires related to Colorado are all on the rise since the state legalized the recreational use of marijuana, according to U.S. officials.
Looking at two guidance pieces from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) you get a quick lesson in how difficult it can be to regulate issues that society -let alone state and federal government- hasn't reached a consensus on.
As federal and state officials continue down the road toward relaxing cannabis restrictions, banks have questions beyond simply whether they can accept marijuana dispensaries as clients. They wonder whether less direct financial ties to the businesses could be cause for concern too.
Banks can choose whether to keep accounts for certain marijuana dispensaries and report limited information to federal officials when the businesses are unlikely targets of prosecutors, the U.S. Treasury Department said Friday.
A number of marijuana dispensaries are attempting to convert their profits into securities and other investments to hedge against the threat of having their bank accounts frozen and subjected to federal asset forfeiture proceedings, say sources.
Bangladeshi officials are set to file tax evasion charges against a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the NCUA issued an enforcement action against North Dade Community Development Federal Credit Union for BSA violations, and more, in the midweek roundup.
A proposed Uruguayan law that would permit and regulate recreational marijuana use poses serious legal and regulatory questions for American banks doing business in the region, according to compliance officers and former U.S. attorneys.
The UK Revenue and Customs is investigating British residents who hold Jersey-based accounts with HSBC Holdings Plc., while the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklisted Iran's communications minister and others Thursday.
Banks that maintain accounts for state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries will not be the targets of federal prosecutions, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.
Legislation introduced Wednesday to facilitate access of state-licensed marijuana vendors to banking services would strike down some federal reporting obligations placed on U.S. financial institutions.
More than 100 medical marijuana clinics have seen their accounts closed in the last 18 months by at least three U.S. banks concerned about regulatory repercussions, say cannabis advocacy groups.
