News
Treasury Secretary Will Seek Reduced AML Burden for Small Banks
By Matt Squire
printU.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will announce plans to reevaluate the anti-money laundering compliance burden placed on certain financial institutions, people familiar with the matter said. Paulson, at a meeting scheduled for Friday at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) headquarters in Vienna, Va., will disclose plans to improve risk-based exam procedures for institutions, the people said. He also will say that regulators may narrow the definition of money services business. The news was first reported in the American Banker. During his visit to FinCEN, Paulson will address the bureau's efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and implement...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
Large banks need to clearly delineate which senior executives are responsible for Bank Secrecy Act compliance violations, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency said in a speech Monday.
An individually-owned and operated money services business in Michigan will pay $12,000 and cease operations for failing to properly screen thousands of wire transfers to Yemen, U.S. regulators said Friday.
Arizona has granted the nation's largest money transmitter an additional three months to improve its anti-money laundering compliance program and avoid criminal prosecution.
One of the country's top lobbying groups for money services businesses will ask lawmakers in February to streamline how the companies obtain licenses to operate in the United States.
The terms of a $100 million settlement disclosed Friday by MoneyGram for anti-money laundering lapses will cost the Dallas-based money remitter nearly $200 million once completed, regulatory documents show.
A 2008 investigation of Colombian cash couriers by customs officials and the U.S. Justice Department that made headlines for its ties to European cocaine sales had a lesser known result: Bank Secrecy Act regulations.
Prompted by financial regulators, some of the largest U.S. banks have been reevaluating how they gauge geographic financial crime risks in designated high-risk regions of the country, say sources.
An agreement by one the nation's largest money transmitters to better share transactional data with investigators has resulted in greater scrutiny, both for the business and its chief competitor.
Dozens of small banks and credit unions have begun courting money services businesses over the past year, offering financial services to the high-risk clients in exchange for compliance-related fees.
The transfer of billions of dollars in deposits out of large banks to smaller competitors is likely to increase the compliance work and woes of credit unions and community banks.
The push by community banks and other financial institutions to generate fee income with new products is causing some institutions to run afoul of their examiners, according to federal banking regulators.
Money services businesses have been slow to respond to an April request by the U.S. Treasury Department to provide more data on their individual agents, say compliance professionals.
The U.S. Treasury Department is in the final stages of levying a $12,000 civil money penalty against a New Jersey-based money remitter for failing to register as a money services business.
A U.S. Treasury Department plan to increase reporting on cross-border transactions would allow federal regulators and investigators to more easily detect unregistered money remitters - if they can sift through the data.
The Internal Revenue Service's anti-money laundering division is in the process of revamping how it examines tens of thousands of money services businesses, according to a former U.S. Treasury Department official.
Since 2008, federal financial regulators have increasingly quizzed compliance staff about such scenarios in an effort to determine how banks are distinguishing their low-, moderate- and high-risk clients, according to bank officials.
Money services businesses and sellers of stored value cards will know this summer whether final rules by the U.S. Treasury Department will increase their anti-money laundering compliance duties and costs.
A plan to streamline Bank Secrecy Act compliance for financial institutions is getting mixed reviews a year after its initiation, with some representatives of banks saying that it has produced too few tangible results.
The "Blueprint for Financial Regulatory Reform," unveiled by Paulson on Monday, would expand the oversight power of the Federal Reserve, consolidate the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and eliminate the Office of Thrift Supervision.
The aim of the restructuring proposal is to focus the Treasury's agencies primarily on financial soundness, consumer and investor regulation and overall market stability, Treasury Department Under Secretary Robert Steel said Thursday at the New York Society of Securities Analysts.