Financial crimes

A statement by a foreign regulator that it might penalize banks that drop businesses due to heightened supervisory risk has spooked U.S. institutions who worry domestic agencies could follow suit.

U.S. authorities have fined the San Francisco startup $700,000 over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's Tuesday press release.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including a case for the CFPB's debt collection regulations and the dangers of "real-time" transaction monitoring.

Regulators' latest guide for examining anti-laundering procedures lacks wholesale changes, but institutions still must decipher minute changes with potentially big impacts.

For more than a decade, U.S. regulators have been advising bankers to know more about their customers than who they are. In the next five years that may become the global norm as technology allows more granular transaction monitoring.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including thoughts on derisking, biometric technology and Paul Volcker’s proposal to reform the regulatory system.

In light of a recent op-ed about pawnbrokers denied banking services, it's worth reiterating that the FDIC encourages banks to assess individual businesses for risk rather than declining to provide services to entire categories of customers.

The National Pawnbrokers Association argues that its members have been unfairly swept up in the Justice Department initiative known as Operation Choke Point. But banks say Choke Point's not to blame: they're closing the accounts of cash-intensive businesses in order to ensure compliance with anti-money-laundering rules.

Even small U.S. banks can end up doing business with institutions all across the world, but here are some jurisdictions were doing so is either outright forbidden or requires additional scrutiny.

BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Miss., has been freed from a consent order tied to Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering compliance.

The dialogue comes as the central bank is mulling a potentially momentous application by an upstart credit union that hopes to serve the marijuana industry.

A growing lack of transparency between some businesses and their banking service providers threatens our ability to effectively manage money laundering and terrorist financing risk.

PayPal will pay a $7.7 million fine for processing payments from customers that have ties to sanctioned parties on a U.S. Government list.

Law firms, compliance specialists, lobbyists and even startups are all trying to get a piece of the burgeoning billion-dollar industry aimed at navigating, modifying or complying with the Volcker Rule.

Federal regulators on Tuesday pushed back against the perception that they are cracking down harder on Bank Secrecy Act violations, saying they have not made recent changes to the rules or how they enforce them.

M&T Bank and Hudson City Bancorp plan to mail ballots this week to shareholders asking for approval of the companies' planned merger.

Claire Cockerton of U.K. trade group Innovate Finance explains how technology can rehabilitate the global banking industry's reputation, how London became a financial technology hub and why Mayor Boris Johnson was plugging startups in New York last month.

SAS has launched a new solution designed to allow banks to rapidly test anti-money laundering scenarios, the business analytics software and services provider announced March 16.

Apple Pay and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have a lot of appeal for banks looking to stay at the cutting edge of digital payments. But security and compliance risks are part and parcel of these innovations.

Observers fear state regulator Benjamin Lawsky's proposal to model anti-laundering reviews after Sarbanes-Oxley requirements could thin ranks of compliance specialists and slow monitoring.