AML

Right now, financial institutions are not required to know the identity of the living, breathing person behind accounts owned by legal entities. The beneficial ownership rules proposed by Fincen would help expose money launderers, tax evaders and criminals.

HSBC has spent billions of dollars in compliance and legal costs, but the damaging scandals keep coming. Renewed attention on the problems at its Swiss private bank could fuel the debate about whether banks this size are too big to manage.

The New Jersey Assembly is weighing whether to pursue legislation that would make the state a haven for digital currency businesses.

Stephen Platt, regulatory investigations consultant and author of "Criminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime," explains his misgivings about the idea of a shared know-your-customer registry for the industry.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a letter Wednesday emphasizing that financial institutions should take a measured approach to banking relationships rather than cutting ties with entire lines of businesses.

Dumping entire categories of clients is a crude and inappropriate reaction to large fines, says Stephen Platt, author of Criminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime." However, he says, regulators should hold a dialogue with banks and attempt to accommodate businesses that carry high risk but whose services are desperately required, such as remittances to war-torn Somalia.

Hudson City Bancorp in Paramus, N.J., reported lower quarterly profits as its loan book keeps shrinking.

A spate of recent account closings at churches and charities suggests that Operation Choke Point and other de-risking directives are causing collateral damage to faith-based organizations.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Hacker groups like Anonymous have announced plans to target banks that are helping to finance ISIS and other terrorist organizations. But it is governments, banks and regulators that need to work harder at rooting out the sources of ISIS's funding.

Fulton Financial in Lancaster, Pa., reported lower quarterly earnings that reflected the costs of complying with a regulatory order.

The Obama Administration's issued looser rules Thursday for transactions in the small island nation, but banks still face impediments.

Regulators want banks to police MSBs for illicit activity, but they do not view all such businesses as high-risk, said David Cohen, Treasury's top AML official.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division of the Treasury Department, has assessed a $1 million civil penalty against MoneyGram International's former chief compliance officer.

A new report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finds potential industry threats from interest rate volatility, looser underwriting and other areas.

Amid huge regulatory pressure to strengthen anti-money-laundering controls, banks are grappling with a shortage of compliance talent.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Tuesday released the latest guidebook for examiners to use in assessing banks' anti-money-laundering programs.