The U.S. Treasury Department has failed to answer congressional inquiries concerning allegedly questionable hiring practices by the nation's financial intelligence unit, a Republican lawmaker said Tuesday.
Dozens of officials in the U.S. financial intelligence unit may be resigning this month as part of the bureau's plan to remodel itself.
House lawmakers are asking the nation's financial intelligence unit to reform how it screens job applicants following reports that the bureau's recent hiring campaign may have violated federal standards.
Efforts to ramp up the U.S. financial intelligence unit's enforcement of the Bank Secrecy Act have run into a longstanding hurdle: the bureau's reliance on financial regulators for case leads.
A decision by the U.S. Treasury to reshape the nation's financial intelligence unit has spurred serious concerns about the direction of the agency.
At the same time that the nation's financial intelligence unit is readying unprecedented fines against compliance officers, the agency is facing stark questions about its enforcement efforts, including its hiring practices.
When FinCEN restructured its reporting hierarchy, the bureau signaled a subtle but important shift for banks: some of the energy it had once spent toward improving compliance would now serve to penalize regulatory violators, says former Assistant Director for the Office of Compliance Tom Fleming.
The U.S. Treasury Department's financial intelligence unit is considering invoking for the first time a Bank Secrecy Act power to obtain data on foreign banks, say multiple sources.
The nation's primary financial intelligence unit has been structurally reorganized to better integrate how the bureau analyzes and shares data on money laundering and other crimes, its director said Monday.
U.S. law enforcement officials and regulators have queried the nation's financial intelligence unit about securities settlements that use the world's top financial messaging platform, according to the agency's director.
Mandatory budget cuts scheduled to take effect in eight days would hinder the U.S. Treasury Department's efforts to crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing, say top federal officials.
Planned budget cuts that would limit cooperation between regional investigators and the U.S. Treasury Department's financial intelligence unit would be nixed under the latest congressional appropriations bill.
Venezuela announces plans to create a public bond market, 14 individuals charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization, in this week's roundup.
A proposal by the nation's largest bank lobbyist to overhaul the role of the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is getting a cool reception from government officials.
The country's largest banking association proposed a sweeping overhaul of U.S. anti-money laundering enforcement that would create a governmental entity responsible for overseeing Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
The proposed $91.3 million budget, a fraction of the total Treasury Department budget released Monday, includes $82.2 million for BSA administration and analysis and $9.2 million for regulatory support programs, including coordinating with the Internal Revenue Services to ensure BSA compliance.
The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has named former Citigroup executive Peter Goodyear as the head of its Bank Secrecy Act data analysis unit.
The write off-for equipment, software and labor related to BSA Direct-accounted for more than half of a 24 percent drop in FinCEN's total assets in the year ended September 30, 2007, according to a government audit.
The system, expected to be in operation next month, will help banks streamline the process of providing examiners with proof of compliance with law enforcement requests, FinCEN Director James Freis said.
Individuals can use the new tool to search more than 220 file types, including forms and regulations, on FinCEN's Web sites.