Money laundering

Executives at the Canadian bank, which recently took a major provision for potential fines, say they're working to shore up anti-money laundering controls. At the same time, they're preparing employees and investors for an expensive slog as they work to satisfy U.S. officials.

A veteran Canadian bank analyst says Toronto-Dominion Bank's role in an alleged money-laundering scheme has made the "worst-case scenario" more likely — a huge fine for the lender and years of restrictions on its U.S. growth.

Toronto-Dominion failed to submit suspicious-transaction reports in cases where it was reasonable to suspect the transfers were tied to money laundering or terrorist financing, along with other violations, according to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.

Toronto-Dominion Bank has taken an initial provision of $450 million in connection with U.S. investigations into its anti-money-laundering practices and said it expects additional penalties to come.

With financial crime surging worldwide, it is critical that the public and private sectors align on a shared vision to collectively focus on combating bad actors and to eliminate their ability to launder the proceeds of criminal activity.

The collection of beneficial ownership data is vital to fighting money laundering. It should be more broadly accessible, and should cover more businesses.

A new report sheds light on the lack of player protections against scams and exploitive data collection practices of video game companies.

The steady drumbeat of consent orders against banks that offer banking as a service continues, with regulators telling banks to keep a closer eye on their fintech partners' compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering rules.

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Fiercely polarized U.S. politics. Rapidly multiplying payments options on social media networks and elsewhere. Those factors and more are making it harder than ever for banks to combat illicit financial transactions.

The ruling further complicates an already complicated area — the law's mandate around beneficial ownership information reporting.

Banco San Juan Internacional is suing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Board of Governors in Washington claiming they wrongfully terminated its access to the federal payments system.

The Toronto bank has been under investigation by U.S. and Canadian supervisors for alleged shortcomings in anti-money-laundering compliance. CEO Bharat Masrani pledged "comprehensive enhancements" but declined to pinpoint the exact fixes and their costs.

Bharat Masrani has spent a decade as the Canadian bank's top executive and is pushing 70. But as the bank undergoes a U.S. Justice Department probe, it's unclear when he'll step down or who's next in line.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Tuesday proposed a rule to include investment advisors in the compliance regime under the Bank Secrecy Act, aiming to close regulatory gaps exploited by criminals.

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network fined a New York credit union employee $100,000 Wednesday in connection with a scheme to launder $1 billion using armored trucks and the credit union's Fed master account.

January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and the financial services industry should take the opportunity to step up for survivors.

The leader of the Financial Services Forum takes issue with a recent BankThink article that challenged the industry's claims about proposed rules for implementing the Basel endgame capital requirements.

The Federal Reserve and New York State Department of Financial Services fined the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for violations related to a lack of internal controls for confidential supervisory information and anti-money-laundering compliance failures.

Past crises have created opportunities for criminal organizations to inject their funds into the legitimate banking system. Bankers can't allow that to happen again.