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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.
Draft U.S. Treasury Department rules on customer due diligence requirements for financial institutions would not prevent criminals from exploiting shell companies, according to Elise Bean, former staff director and chief counsel of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
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.
Few small financial firms in the U.K. have adequate anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs, including enhanced due diligence controls for high-risk clients, Britain's top financial regulator said Monday.
The head of a powerful U.S. Senate panel is pushing to include new corporate transparency measures as part of broader financial reform legislation, according to former and current staffers.
A U.S. Senate subcommittee called for reforms Thursday to better detect when corrupt foreign politicians hide dirty money in the United States, including the implementation of federal beneficial ownership rules.
The exploitation of shell companies by arms traffickers, terrorist financiers and other criminals represents a serious danger to U.S. national security, a high ranking U.S. Treasury Department official said Thursday.
Senator Carl Levin reintroduced a bill Wednesday that would mandate that states collect information on the beneficial owners of corporations in an effort to stop shell company abuse.
A revamped state-lead proposal to create more transparency in how companies incorporate isn't a lot different from earlier drafts and would leave legal gaps that would allow criminal exploitation, say former law enforcement agents.
The measure would require states to keep a list of the beneficial owners of companies and limited liability companies formed under their laws and update the list annually. Law enforcement agencies could access the information through a summons or subpoena.
