Money laundering

Even as the Biden administration ramped up sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen faced questions from Republican lawmakers who want to go further. Yellen, meanwhile, stressed the value of working together with allies.

Banks must comply quickly with fast-moving sanctions against the Kremlin and have to spot questionable Russian companies and wealthy individuals. At the same time, some need to deal with settlement risk of trades that involve rubles. Sophisticated data sharing and analysis are making it easier to do the job.

The White House's $5.8 trillion spending proposal to Congress includes more dollars for anti-money-laundering enforcement, Small Business Administration loan guarantee programs and affordable housing financed by community development financial institutions.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency slammed the San Antonio bank for anti-money-laundering violations. The penalty is the latest in a series of regulatory problems for USAA.

Four of five bills aimed at countering Russian aggression in Europe won significant bipartisan support from the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday. But the panel adopted a bill intended to expand the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's ability to hunt down Russian assets over fierce Republican opposition.

The impact of U.S. sanctions against Russia on U.S. banks has so far been limited. But further escalation could lead to anti-money-laundering compliance challenges and invite cyberattacks, among other consequences.

Canadian banks have frozen just over 200 accounts under emergency powers invoked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that are meant to end protests in Ottawa and at key border crossings, a government official said this week.

Banks are still seeking clarity from law enforcement on how to handle the alleged protesters’ accounts. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said some accounts have already been frozen as part of a financial crackdown on those accused of paralyzing the nation's capital.

Coinbase Global, Gemini Trust and Robinhood Markets are among firms helping to build a platform to comply with a U.S. money laundering rule as crypto and financial technology companies seek to satisfy existing requirements and head off stricter oversight.

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.

Congress had been close to passing legislation to help banks serve cannabis firms. Now Democratic leaders have all but abandoned the effort, prioritizing a riskier proposal to decriminalize the drug.