The leak of millions of records purporting to show widespread exploitation of offshore financial centers by global leaders, lenders and criminals is expected to draw governmental scrutiny of illicit finance, however unevenly.
The Obama administration is pushing lawmakers to introduce legislation that would require corporations to obtain tax identification data that could be turned over to investigators.
U.S. officials will formally propose this month a long-planned rule that would require banks to identify the owners of their corporate clients, according to an Office of Management and Budget schedule.
Intergovernmental plans to better identify corporate owners will do little to thwart financial crooks, even at great cost to banks and governments, according to an academic report on offshore financial flows.
EU parliamentarians voted Tuesday to require member-states to update their laws targeting money launderers and the financiers of terrorism, in part by naming corporate owners.
A European Parliamentary committee Thursday approved far-reaching changes to the EU's rules combating money laundering and terrorist financing, including an amendment that would require nations to publicize corporate owners.
A U.K. plan to name the owners of privately-held corporations will help shine a light on shell companies, but how revealing that effort will be remains uncertain.
British asset management firms are failing to adequately address their vulnerabilities to money laundering, bribery and corruption, the United Kingdom's chief financial regulator said Thursday.
British officials are set to propose legislation that would require private corporations and limited liability partnerships to publicly disclose their individual owners, a U.K. minister said Monday.
U.S. Treasury Department officials are weighing whether to exempt trusts and offer more flexibility on verification requirements in an upcoming proposal that would impose data collection duties on corporate accounts held at banks.
Critics of a U.S. Treasury Department plan to strengthen beneficial ownership reporting by financial institutions aired their concerns to Obama administration officials at a rare public hearing Tuesday.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it was considering imposing customer due diligence currently applied to private banking and correspondent accounts to all accountholders at depository institutions.
The United States is seeking $70.8 million in assets held by Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, a son of the government minister of Equatorial Guinea accused of corruption and money laundering.
Calls for a survey of how U.S. banks monitor high-risk accounts are likely to be ignored even if such a review would expose anti-money laundering compliance gaps, say industry experts.
A Miami-based bank is expected to agree to pay between $10 million and $15 million to the U.S. government in the next month for Bank Secrecy Act violations, according to individuals familiar with the matter.
An ousted Tunisian leader's transfer of suspect funds into Western bank accounts highlights the pitfalls financial institutions face when they maintain relationships for foreign political leaders, say analysts.
Whether political figures like Augusto Pinochet require extra scrutiny from financial institutions that serve them long after they leave office may change in European Union nations under a 2004 AML directive expected to be implemented union-wide this year, according to analysts.
U.S. states have been criticized for not requiring corporations to disclose who their beneficial owners are, an issue Congress is tackling with legislation to make company formation agents comply with anti-money laundering regulations.
The federal government should issue a list of politically exposed persons to help banks identify them, according to former Financial Crimes Enforcement Network director William Fox.
The reduce the threat of shell companies, banks must ask questions to understand the nature of any business opening an account and should seek proof that the business produces something, says David Caruso, an AML compliance expert.