U.S. financial institutions and their regulators will eventually need to collect and analyze increasingly large volumes of information on their clients and compliance efforts, bankers and officials said Monday.
The growing use of China's currency to conduct international trade payments could weaken the potency of U.S. efforts to promote anti-money laundering practices and impose financial sanctions, say analysts.
The United States exempted China and Singapore Thursday from Iran sanctions passed in December to pressure foreign central banks to suspend Iranian oil purchases.
Growing U.S. financial ties to the Chinese market will likely bring anti-money laundering compliance troubles along with profits, according to consultants and former government officials.
As an economic partner with the United States, few countries in the world compare with China. The same could be said for the quality of the nation's anti-money laundering regime, at least on paper, according to Peter Gallo, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based consultancy Pacific Risk Ltd.
China's central bank fined 12 Chinese financial institutions in the first six months of 2008 for involvement with money laundering, according to a news report.
The United States is likely to ramp up penalties against financial institutions and other companies that have bribed Chinese officials to gain entry into the Asian market, including business involving the Olympics, say consultants.
China's central bank reported that suspected cases of money laundering rose to 387 billion yuan, or $52 billion, last year from 32.8 billion yuan in 2005, according to a Bloomberg News report.
In a FATF evaluation, China was deemed fully compliant with eight of FATFs 49 recommendations on money laundering and terrorist financing and noncompliant with eight others. In separate reports, FATF called the U.K.s AML program comprehensive and said Greeces has fallen behind.
FATF approved Chinas membership during its plenary meeting in Paris this week. China passed comprehensive AML laws in October 2006 to bring its system in line with international standards.
The new rules, which extend a law enacted last year, are part of China's bid to join the international Financial Action Task Force.