Money laundering

Ameris Bancorp in Georgia wanted to buy a premium-finance business but settled for a joint venture, blessed by its regulators, after being flagged for insufficient Bank Secrecy Act compliance.

Following the passage of the November ballot initiative, it is hugely important that cannabis businesses in the nation's largest state be able to secure bank accounts, at a minimum.

WASHINGTON — Senate lawmakers are putting pressure on the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit to clarify to banks that businesses hired by marijuana growers and dispensers should not be treated like pot firms themselves.

Federal banking regulators are dismissing claims that they are pressuring banks to cut ties with payday lenders, arguing that the lenders' recent request for a court order against the agencies rests on erroneous speculation and bad legal arguments.

Despite gains for the legalization effort in the November election, the disconnect between federal and state law preserves uncertainty for banks catering to pot businesses.

A Republican president and GOP-controlled Congress have the opportunity to disentangle the current regulatory web that leads to overlapping jurisdiction and duplicative rules.

President-elect Trump faces legal questions over his idea to hold remittances ransom to fund a wall in Mexico, but the industry should take the threat seriously.

Despite a robust anti-money-laundering regime imposed on banks and money services businesses in the U.S., a number of loopholes are allowing other companies to skate by without performing basic due diligence to curb the flow of illicit funds, according to a report by the Financial Action Task Force.

The U.S. is expected to receive bad marks over its supervision of certain high-risk nonfinancial institutions, like lawyers, casinos and real estate agents, for potential anti-money-laundering problems in an upcoming evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network mismanaged its system for tracking enforcement cases, allowing some cases to expire before the agency had the chance to impose civil money penalties, according to a government watchdog.

Illegal methods of moving money are just as likely to be low-tech and old school as high-tech and sophisticated. Surveillance methods and processes need to be able to counter both.

For all of the sophisticated ways criminals might try to launder money, banks still need to defend against low-tech methods that aren’t easy to track.

After anticipating four years of coordination with the White House, stunned Wall Street critics are reorganizing their priorities and vowing to oppose any attempts by the new Republican government to roll back post-crisis reforms.

President-elect Donald Trump's victory poses a unique quandary for the Federal Reserve both before and after he is sworn in — whether the central bank should attempt to finish the many rules still in process or keep its head down to avoid provoking a hostile Congress.

While remittances may pose higher risks than services like bill pay, they are absolutely necessary in an age of unprecedented migration. It's high time state and federal regulators update the rules to help inspire banks to re-risk.

To jawbone Mexico into paying for the wall, President-elect Trump has threatened to suspend remittances. Such a move would disrupt one of the busiest corridors of money in the world.

While Washington scrambles to make sense of President-elect Donald Trump's victory and Republicans' control of both chambers of Congress, the implications of the 2016 election on the Financial Stability Oversight Council will be swift and severe, analysts say.

WASHINGTON — A group of financial regulators have announced final changes to its ratings system for examining banks' compliance with consumer protection laws. The update to the ratings generally reflects changes in the marketplace since the rating system was adopted in 1980.

As voters in California, Florida and nine other states decide whether to legalize marijuana, the results may force Congress to resolve differences between federal and state laws that have paralyzed much of the banking industry.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve's periodic survey of bank loan officers indicates that a decline in banks' share of commercial and industrial lending activity is likely related to nonbanks' ability to outcompete on both price and loan terms.