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Compliance Costs May Cause Some Banks to Drop Trade Finance
By Matt Squire
printBank consultants say they are concerned that the cost of complying with Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations for trade finance transactions could force some banks out of that line of business. "What I'd hate to see is banks take the same stance that they did with money services businesses. [After] the feds crack down on this and blame banks for not detecting trade-based money laundering, the banks could say 'If you are an importer or exporter we're not going to do business with you any more,'" said John Anderson, President of BSA consulting firm Verijon Inc. in Los Angeles. The...
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