News

U.S. banks should be more wary of cash-strapped banks following a warning by a U.N. official that some institutions were accepting drug money to weather economic turmoil, say consultants. In some instances, the only thing keeping struggling banks afloat are interbank loans "funded by money that originated from the drug trade and other illegal activities," Antonio Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, said in a January 25 interview with Austrian weekly newspaper Profil. Translated portions of the Profil interview appeared in a January 25 news report by Reuters. Though Costa declined Profil's request to...