FATF's latest round of mutual evaluations is proving "much more intense" resource-wise than past examination cycles, according to Calvin Wilson, the executive director of the intergovernmental group's affiliate organization in the Caribbean.
Banks in Switzerland will be the first to disclose their American accountholders directly to U.S. officials rather than their government under the terms of a bilateral tax cooperation agreement.
The U.S. Treasury Department Thursday finalized rules for a controversial law intended to pressure foreign banks to name their American clients, and disclosed a related bilateral agreement with Norway.
U.S. Treasury Department officials are weighing whether to exempt trusts and offer more flexibility on verification requirements in an upcoming proposal that would impose data collection duties on corporate accounts held at banks.
Financial institutions concerned about a looming Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act implementation date can breathe easier, at least for another year, under a new U.S. Treasury Department timetable.
A plan by the United Kingdom's Parliament to make it obligatory for non-U.K. financial institutions to disclose data about their British clients is likely to face stiff resistance from the banking sector, say sources.
The U.S. Treasury Department disclosed model plans Thursday that will allow five nations to comply with American tax data-sharing requirements set to take effect early next year.
HSBC Holdings Plc will close all of its U.S. accounts in the Cayman Islands after a congressional investigation found that the Caribbean branch functioned solely as a dollar-clearing shell bank.
A U.S. Treasury Department proposal to toughen customer due diligence obligations for banks would increase compliance costs while providing only minimal benefit to law enforcement, according to industry comment letters.
Compliance with beneficial ownership standards will be one of the top priorities for Financial Action Task Force examiners during the group's next round of jurisdictional reviews, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it was considering imposing customer due diligence currently applied to private banking and correspondent accounts to all accountholders at depository institutions.
The Financial Action Task Force is weighing whether to ask jurisdictions to loosen their privacy laws and require companies to retain data on their owners, among other changes to the group's standards.
Though offshore banking jurisdictions have recently been the subject of worldwide scrutiny for being illegal tax havens, compliance officers should be able to separate facts from fiction, according to the chairman of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.
The British Virgin Islands, identified by U.S. officials as a secrecy jurisdiction, enacted anti-money laundering legislation last week that requires financial institutions to identify the beneficial owners of companies, cut ties with shell banks and refuse requests to open anonymous accounts.