U.S. authorities will clarify in pending guidance that not all remittance companies are susceptible to illicit financial activity, a government official said Wednesday.
Latin America's economic growth has outpaced its development of institutions tasked with fighting financial crime, according to Monica Arruda de Almeida, an adjunct assistant professor for the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University who researches transnational regulation.
An individually-owned and operated money services business in Michigan will pay $12,000 and cease operations for failing to properly screen thousands of wire transfers to Yemen, U.S. regulators said Friday.
Arizona has granted the nation's largest money transmitter an additional three months to improve its anti-money laundering compliance program and avoid criminal prosecution.
One of the country's top lobbying groups for money services businesses will ask lawmakers in February to streamline how the companies obtain licenses to operate in the United States.
The U.S. government's landmark case against HSBC Holdings Plc for knowingly turning a blind eye to financial crime is seemingly fated to end much as it began: complex and messy.
The terms of a $100 million settlement disclosed Friday by MoneyGram for anti-money laundering lapses will cost the Dallas-based money remitter nearly $200 million once completed, regulatory documents show.
A 2008 investigation of Colombian cash couriers by customs officials and the U.S. Justice Department that made headlines for its ties to European cocaine sales had a lesser known result: Bank Secrecy Act regulations.
An agreement by one the nation's largest money transmitters to better share transactional data with investigators has resulted in greater scrutiny, both for the business and its chief competitor.
Dozens of small banks and credit unions have begun courting money services businesses over the past year, offering financial services to the high-risk clients in exchange for compliance-related fees.
Money services businesses have been slow to respond to an April request by the U.S. Treasury Department to provide more data on their individual agents, say compliance professionals.
The U.S. Treasury Department is in the final stages of levying a $12,000 civil money penalty against a New Jersey-based money remitter for failing to register as a money services business.
A U.S. Treasury Department proposal to sharply increase bank reporting of cross-border transactions would diminish the number of structuring cases prosecuted by the United States.
A U.S. Treasury Department plan to increase reporting on cross-border transactions would allow federal regulators and investigators to more easily detect unregistered money remitters - if they can sift through the data.
The Internal Revenue Service's anti-money laundering division is in the process of revamping how it examines tens of thousands of money services businesses, according to a former U.S. Treasury Department official.
Money services businesses and sellers of stored value cards will know this summer whether final rules by the U.S. Treasury Department will increase their anti-money laundering compliance duties and costs.
Money remitters urged U.S. lawmakers Wednesday to develop a federal licensing and regulatory system for the industry that would provide clear guidance on how to comply with anti-money laundering laws.
Companies that act only as middlemen between businesses and foreign exchange brokers are neither currency dealers nor money transmitters, and are thus not regulated by the Bank Secrecy Act, the U.S. Treasury Department said Friday.
The Mexican currency exchange industry will likely see a large number of mergers and closures this year after a number of prominent U.S. banks moved away from serving the market, say industry representatives and former Mexican regulators.
In a June 5 letter to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Miami attorney Frank Rubino, who represents Casa de Cambio Puebla, said federal agents on May 16 seized the companys funds deposited at a Miami branch of Wachovia Bank.