Despite having global standards in place for decades and financial institutions spending "an absolute fortune" on compliance, the international anti-money laundering effort is failing, according to a British official.
A plan to require member-states of the European Union to automatically exchange tax-related data in an effort to boost government revenues is likely to face political and logistical challenges.
Following the decision to hinge a financial aid package for Cyprus on the findings of two audits, other jurisdictions seeking bailouts will likely have to prove their anti-money laundering bona fides.
A Guatemalan appeals court upheld a 2011 ruling that cleared ex-President Alfonso Portillo of allegations that he embezzled $15 million, Lithuania needs to boost counterterrorist financing measures and strengthen controls over politically exposed persons, and more, in the midweek roundup.
Banks in Switzerland will be the first to disclose their American accountholders directly to U.S. officials rather than their government under the terms of a bilateral tax cooperation agreement.
The European Commission unveiled proposals Tuesday for a Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive that would require greater disclosures of beneficial ownership and increased scrutiny of domestic politicians, among other changes.
The U.S. Treasury Department Thursday finalized rules for a controversial law intended to pressure foreign banks to name their American clients, and disclosed a related bilateral agreement with Norway.
Intended to ensure strong Bank Secrecy Act programs, compliance audits can nonetheless have an unintended consequence: they can get banks in trouble, say consultants.
Two recent evaluations of third-party audits conducted on behalf of banks highlights an unresolved question in the compliance world: can you sometimes get what you pay for?
Europe's financial intelligence units are asking the European Commission for uniformity in their ability to suspend suspicious transactions under a forthcoming anti-money laundering directive, a Dutch official said Monday.
The European Union's commissioners asked lawmakers Wednesday to consider broadening the scope of Europe's anti-money laundering directive, lowering beneficial ownership thresholds and strengthening controls on accounts held for political figures.
U.S. and Mexican officials announce the findings of a study on how drug money moves between the two countries and the European Commission tells France it could face monetary penalties for not complying with the EU's Third Directive, in this week's news roundup.
Compliance officers at smaller financial institutions say that meeting the independent testing requirements of an AML program can be difficult. But current and former regulators say there are ways to keep the entire audit or portions of it in-house, a cost savings, if institutions are creative.