Money laundering

Who counts as a politically exposed person, or PEP, is different in different jurisdictions. Uniformity in the identification of people considered a higher risk for money laundering would ease compliance headaches for everyone.

Banks cannot shrug off the impact of sudden account closures as inevitable collateral damage involved in fighting money laundering.

Bank customers' complaints of sudden account closures track a rise in automated anti-money-laundering decisions and possibly outdated AML rules.

The platform will allow banks to share the names and account information of suspected scammers almost in real time. The American Bankers Association is set to test the system with a group of 20 pilot banks early next year.

In its biannual report on supervision and regulation, the Federal Reserve Board noted an uptick in governance issues with large banks. Regional and community banks, meanwhile, were plagued by IT problems and risk management struggles.

Fincen's final rule issued Tuesday allows reporting companies to use Fincen identifiers as shorthand for a full list of preapproved beneficial ownership data, which the agency says will streamline the reporting process.

The Treasury Department is expanding a whistleblower program, which currently deals only with anti-money-laundering violations, to include tips from employees of financial institutions that result in sanctions-related penalties.

U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said Oscar Marcelo Nunez-Flores, a New Jersey bank staffer of a bank unnamed in case documents, was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly took bribes to launder millions in drug money to Colombia.

As financial institutions increasingly rely on artificial intelligence for anti-money-laundering and fraud detection, they face challenges in meeting regulators' demands for complete transparency and documentation.

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an alert Friday calling on financial institutions to closely monitor and report suspected financial activities related to Hamas, including complex cryptocurrency transactions and through fictitious charities.

The move to create data consortia and proprietary information networks is creating exactly the kind of information silos that money launderers exploit today.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said most small businesses will need to report information about their beneficial owners at the start of next year; certain financial and government entities are exempt because of their preexisting regulatory requirements.

Bancrédito International Bank and Trust Corp. "willfully violated" the Bank Secrecy Act, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The penalty was the first under a two-year-old federal rule aimed at closing gaps in anti-money-laundering enforcement.

The $100 million-asset bank ran afoul of various regulatory standards, including credit oversight, anti-money-laundering controls and third-party risk management.

Legislation before Congress would violate individuals' digital privacy by requiring digital wallet providers to intrusively gather and report highly personal information.

Switzerland on Wednesday proposed tougher AML rules as U.S. officials ramp up their critique of what they say is weak sanctions enforcement.

House Republicans' accusation that government agencies are being weaponized against political conservatives underlines a longstanding challenge for banks: Balancing customers' data privacy and stopping financial crime.

The subpoena is part of a growing Republican narrative that Democrats have weaponized the Federal Bureau of Investigation against conservatives.

Gacki, who has served since 2019 as director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, will replace acting Fincen Director Himamauli Das. Her appointment comes as the Biden administration seeks to enforce sanctions against Russia and implement rules aimed at identifying undisclosed shell company owners.