Money laundering

The registry created by the law — whose implementing rules are being written now — is worse than useless, pairing unverified data with severe penalties for misuse. It will confuse bankers, burden small businesses and embolden crooks.

The U.S. Treasury Department is looking more closely at potential money laundering and the financing of terrorism through trading high-value art.

A proposal by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network would create a pilot program allowing banks to do something they've long wanted: share suspicious activity reports with their own units in other countries. But many banks may take a pass if the agency doesn't ease the compliance requirements, experts say.

The Financial Conduct Authority has fined a U.K. unit of HSBC Holdings 64 million pounds ($85 million) after finding “serious weaknesses” in the automated processes it used to monitor suspicious transactions, the latest example of the watchdog’s increasingly assertive stance against the firms it regulates.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed standards to determine which companies must report their beneficial owners under a law enacted in January. Banks hope the new requirements will free them of the burden of collecting true-owner information about their customers.

The regulator has a policy that allows it to convert public enforcement actions into informal, nonpublic ones in cases where banks haven't fully met their obligations. Its inspector general says that the practice may give a false impression to customers and investors.

The bank was fined $150 million for anti-money-laundering violations because it missed — or ignored — numerous red flags in its dealings with the convicted sex offender. Here's what it should have done differently.

NatWest Group could face a fine of several hundred million pounds from the U.K.’s financial watchdog after pleading guilty to three criminal charges of money laundering.

Banks are traditionally the target of anti-money-laundering regulations and law enforcement’s efforts to crack down on illicit finance. As the cryptocurrency sector grows, policymakers may subject it to customer identification requirements and other measures, analysts say.

Tech companies that help banks detect money laundering have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in recent months because of advances in their products. Observers suggest the vendors will have to diversify their offerings to survive in a crowded field.