U.S. officials are likely to gather a wealth of data from the imposition of newly-mandated reporting requirements but may have limited means to directly enforce compliance with the rules, according to government sources.
American seizures of cash bound for the Mexican border are on track to reach their lowest annual total in the last six years, federal statistics show.
Hampered by restricted access to international wire data, U.S. federal officials are hoping to shine a light on a suspected money-laundering ring through reports on cash payments in Miami's electronics sector.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday directed hundreds of electronics companies near Miami to comply with enhanced cash reporting requirements as part of a federal effort to expose a trade-based money-laundering scheme.
A U.S. Treasury Department order last summer calling for greater reporting by armored car companies in Southern California has driven a sharp spike in federal cash seizures near San Diego.
Companies linked to an ongoing trade-based money laundering operation in the Los Angeles fashion district are willing to break the law again, provided their payouts are more effectively disguised, an investigator said Tuesday.
Beginning this month, businesses in Los Angeles' Fashion District must record when they accept $3,000 or more in cash, the U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday.
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.
Changes to the final version of Mexico's new anti-money laundering law leave important gaps in the nation's compliance regime, and may elicit criticism from an intergovernmental policymaker, say analysts.
In the wake of regulatory crackdowns and multiple criminal probes, financial institutions operating in Mexico are spending millions of dollars to upgrade their anti-money laundering programs, say bank staff.
Key features of an anti-money laundering strategy to combat drug trafficking organizations pitched last year by Mexican officials may ultimately be dropped by lawmakers, say industry advisors.
Exemptions for Mexican hotels and other businesses from Mexico's limits on U.S. dollar deposits can be readily exploited by narco-traffickers and money launderers, say compliance professionals.
A broad anti-money laundering measure that would create and strengthen criminal penalties and impose reporting requirements on non-bank institutions in Mexico is likely to pass into law this month, say former government officials.
Despite reports that 30 percent of Mexico's currency is derived from illicit funds, many compliance officers are just now waking up to the reality of the country's extensive money laundering problems, according to an AML consultant who works with MSBs.
Of the up to $39 billion in illegal funds smuggled from the United States into Mexico every year, approximately half ends up in Mexican financial institutions, according to a former official in the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments.
Mexico President Felipe Calderon introduced a bevy of measures Thursday designed to crimp the flow of illicit drug proceeds from entering the country's financial system, including by limiting cash transactions on purchasing aircraft, vehicles, and real estate.
Revisions to Mexico's anti-money laundering strategy promised earlier this month must account for regulatory-gaps in trade-based money laundering, the continuing problem of casas de cambio and the use of U.S. dollars in Mexico, say ex-law enforcement officials and compliance professionals.