An individually-owned and operated money services business in Michigan will pay $12,000 and cease operations for failing to properly screen thousands of wire transfers to Yemen, U.S. regulators said Friday.
Arizona has granted the nation's largest money transmitter an additional three months to improve its anti-money laundering compliance program and avoid criminal prosecution.
Lobbying by the world's largest stored value payment facilitator has indefinitely delayed, and perhaps permanently blocked, a plan to give customs officials the ability to read prepaid cards, say sources.
One of the country's top lobbying groups for money services businesses will ask lawmakers in February to streamline how the companies obtain licenses to operate in the United States.
The terms of a $100 million settlement disclosed Friday by MoneyGram for anti-money laundering lapses will cost the Dallas-based money remitter nearly $200 million once completed, regulatory documents show.
A 2008 investigation of Colombian cash couriers by customs officials and the U.S. Justice Department that made headlines for its ties to European cocaine sales had a lesser known result: Bank Secrecy Act regulations.
American officials will begin field-testing prepaid card readers at U.S. border stops next month as part of the lead-up to the Treasury Department regulations governing their cross-border transport, say officials.
Disputes and confusion over which companies will be responsible for anti-money laundering rules on stored value products has delayed federal registration and oversight of the sector, say industry representatives.
An agreement by one the nation's largest money transmitters to better share transactional data with investigators has resulted in greater scrutiny, both for the business and its chief competitor.
Dozens of small banks and credit unions have begun courting money services businesses over the past year, offering financial services to the high-risk clients in exchange for compliance-related fees.
Money services businesses have been slow to respond to an April request by the U.S. Treasury Department to provide more data on their individual agents, say compliance professionals.
A federal letter asking money services businesses to turn over data on their agents marks the first broad U.S. effort in 14 years to better understand the scope of the fractured money transmitter market.
The U.S. Treasury Department is in the final stages of levying a $12,000 civil money penalty against a New Jersey-based money remitter for failing to register as a money services business.
Several banks are asking the U.S. Treasury Department's financial crimes bureau for the unthinkable: more anti-money laundering compliance responsibilities.
A U.S. Treasury Department plan to increase reporting on cross-border transactions would allow federal regulators and investigators to more easily detect unregistered money remitters - if they can sift through the data.
The Internal Revenue Service's anti-money laundering division is in the process of revamping how it examines tens of thousands of money services businesses, according to a former U.S. Treasury Department official.
A report by an intergovernmental watchdog highlighting the anti-money laundering weaknesses of more than two dozen countries is prompting non-bank financial institutions to drop customers and avoid risky markets.
The Internal Revenue Service is ill-equipped to examine money services businesses for federal compliance, industry leaders and lawmakers told a congressional subcommittee Wednesday.
A U.S. Treasury Department proposal that would potentially apply U.S. anti-money laundering regulations to hundreds of thousands of foreign money services businesses would be virtually "unenforceable," according to compliance consultants.
The U.S. Treasury Department is proposing to alter its definitions of what constitutes a money services business subject to the Bank Secrecy Act, including requiring foreign institutions providing money remittance services to U.S. customers to report suspicious activity.