This time last December, one might reasonably have expected that 2014 would be a year of modest changes for the anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance sector. Then came JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas and a convoy of Russian tanks to quash that notion.
The United States Thursday fined a former chief compliance officer for MoneyGram $1 million for his alleged role in the company's 2012 violations of anti-money laundering laws.
An expected jump in regulatory penalties against individual bankers is motivating more compliance officers to look into obtaining personal liability insurance, with perhaps disappointing results.
"This time it's personal" was a promo line for "Jaws: The Revenge," the unsuccessful fourth Jaws movie featuring a great white shark that pursues a family from New England to the Bahamas. To the degree regulators are pursuing individuals for compliance failures, this time IT IS personal too.
A recent regulatory penalty citing a Brown Brothers Harriman executive made a compliance director at Bank of America wonder about his future personal liability, attendees of a business forum heard Tuesday.
The U.S. Treasury Department's record fine last month against a subsidiary of Deutsche Börse did more than just signal that Americans would continue to take a tough tack against Iranian sanctions dodgers. It outlined new regulatory expectations, say consultants.
The nation's largest nongovernmental regulator of securities is signaling it wants executing brokers to know their customers better, even when the clients come from larger firms.
As investment firms look toward new markets to turn a profit, the individuals charged with auditing their compliance program should take note. Bad audits remain a common thread of costly regulatory penalties.
Penny stock fraud and soon-to-be introduced customer due diligence regulations should be foremost on the minds of compliance officers at small securities firms, believes Kenneth Cherrier, senior vice president and chief supervisory officer at Overland, KS-based Waddell & Reed, Inc.
A New York brokerage firm violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to report suspicious activity related to a scheme to bilk third-party investors, securities regulators said Tuesday.
The number of fines levied by the U.S. nongovernmental regulator of securities and brokerage firms more than doubled in the first five months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.
Securities regulators are likely to increasingly penalize firms that fail to identify the beneficial owners of accounts controlled by so-called "master" accounts, according to Alma Angotti, the former senior counsel in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's enforcement department.
Some firms under the purview of the nation's largest independent securities regulator are failing to meet anti-money laundering compliance standards despite spending enough money to do so, according to an agency regulator.
Stock fraud and associated money laundering involving penny stocks are on the rise, compliance experts say.