Senators chastised the U.S. Treasury Department Wednesday for delays in regulating prepaid access products that can be used to smuggle drug proceeds from the United States into Mexico.
The U.S. Treasury Department will miss a Feb. 22 deadline set by Congress to implement rules subjecting stored value cards to the Bank Secrecy Act, according to consultants and bank lobbyists.
The U.S. Treasury Department remains on schedule to issue regulations early next year that will bring stored-value cards under the purview of the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a government official.
Nevada Senate Judiciary members Thursday approved a measure that would allow law enforcement officers to freeze, and in some cases seize, prepaid credit and stored-value cards without a warrant.
Merchants and automatic teller machines that help customers reload stored value cards do not necessarily qualify as money services businesses subject to anti-money laundering regulations, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
SARs filed by banks and other financial institutions rose 19 percent to more than 1 million in fiscal 2006, according to FinCENs annual report released Monday. That compares with a 32 percent increase in 2005 and a 61 percent increase in 2004, according to FinCEN data.
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