AML

The proposal calls for banks to make their compliance programs "risk-based" and pledges to emphasize "systemic" flaws with anti-money-laundering programs rather than "isolated" shortcomings.

As a subsidiary of Bank of America, Merrill uses a BofA software program to monitor and report suspicious activity. For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission says, that program fell short.

The Omaha bank says AI agents halve the time required to research fraud, sanctions violations and money-laundering alerts.

The clarification spells out what banks can share to stop scams. The Bank Policy Institute welcomed it but wants Congress to write the protection into law.

Cheungkin Lam fed customers' account details to a crew that drained their balances, including $417,300 from one account that TD had to repay.

A proposal from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would require the agency to notify Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 30 days prior to major anti-money laundering actions against stablecoin issuers. The rule would also allow issuers to directly share normally confidential information with Fincen during the enforcement process.

An automated alert system auto-closed "a very high percentage" of suspicious-activity flags at the bank, the OCC said.

The White House issued an executive order Tuesday directing the Treasury department, bank regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to advise banks on "red flags" of informal work arrangements. How agencies implement the order will determine how onerous compliance will ultimately be for banks.

Fincen just proposed the most significant reform to AML compliance in a generation, but its reporting forms are still broken. A handful of key changes would meaningfully reduce compliance burden without reducing investigative value.

Banks weighing stablecoin partnerships need to know whose playbook regulators will endorse before another major crypto theft tests the question.

The Justice Department recategorized state and federally approved cannabis products from Schedule I to Schedule III, a move that falls short of full legalization but could ignite renewed interest from banks and credit unions in servicing state-legal cannabis businesses.

The Treasury Department Wednesday proposed a set of rules that would require stablecoin issuers to abide by risk-based anti-money-laundering programs similar to those that banks must employ, as well as secondary market monitoring and independent testing by issuers. 

A rumored executive order that would require banks to verify the citizenship of their account holders would be incredibly burdensome for banks. It would also result in the "debanking" of untold numbers of Americans.

Before holding financial institutions accountable for new regulatory expectations, clearer guidance is needed on what constitutes appropriate risk-based decision-making versus impermissible "debanking."

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's expectations of banks that file suspicious activity reports have changed. Some banking clients may soon discover that they are less appealing customers than they used to be.

As geopolitical threats loom, the U.S. needs a better-coordinated AML strategy. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network should take the lead in implementing needed reforms.

As the Trump administration signals interest in reforming AML regulations, the industry must come together in support of new rules that promote efficiency and effectiveness in the fight against financial crime.

TD Bank has said it's completed "the majority" of the action items for its U.S. compliance remediation.

As artificial intelligence is integrated into more and more core banking operations, bank boards of directors need to make sure business continuity plans account for the possibility of AI system failures.

It is long past time to revisit the regulatory regime implementing the Bank Secrecy Act. In a good sign, key elements of the Trump administration seem to be in alignment on reform.