The U.S. Treasury Department finalized its long-awaited customer due diligence rule Friday shortly after the introduction by the White House of a bevy of corporate transparency-related measures.
The leak of millions of records purporting to show widespread exploitation of offshore financial centers by global leaders, lenders and criminals is expected to draw governmental scrutiny of illicit finance, however unevenly.
A U.S. Treasury Department proposal that asks banks to identify corporate owners could also end up shining a light on the often murky hedge fund sector, say attorneys.
In a long anticipated move, the U.S. Treasury Department Wednesday proposed to require a broad range of financial institutions to identify the beneficial owners of their corporate accounts.
U.S. officials will formally propose this month a long-planned rule that would require banks to identify the owners of their corporate clients, according to an Office of Management and Budget schedule.
Intergovernmental plans to better identify corporate owners will do little to thwart financial crooks, even at great cost to banks and governments, according to an academic report on offshore financial flows.
EU parliamentarians voted Tuesday to require member-states to update their laws targeting money launderers and the financiers of terrorism, in part by naming corporate owners.
A European Parliamentary committee Thursday approved far-reaching changes to the EU's rules combating money laundering and terrorist financing, including an amendment that would require nations to publicize corporate owners.
A U.K. plan to name the owners of privately-held corporations will help shine a light on shell companies, but how revealing that effort will be remains uncertain.
British asset management firms are failing to adequately address their vulnerabilities to money laundering, bribery and corruption, the United Kingdom's chief financial regulator said Thursday.
British officials are set to propose legislation that would require private corporations and limited liability partnerships to publicly disclose their individual owners, a U.K. minister said Monday.
U.S. Treasury Department officials are weighing whether to exempt trusts and offer more flexibility on verification requirements in an upcoming proposal that would impose data collection duties on corporate accounts held at banks.
Critics of a U.S. Treasury Department plan to strengthen beneficial ownership reporting by financial institutions aired their concerns to Obama administration officials at a rare public hearing Tuesday.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it was considering imposing customer due diligence currently applied to private banking and correspondent accounts to all accountholders at depository institutions.
The chairman of the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will reintroduce a measure that would require company formation agents to record beneficial ownership data, a government official said Tuesday.
Few small financial firms in the U.K. have adequate anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs, including enhanced due diligence controls for high-risk clients, Britain's top financial regulator said Monday.
The head of a powerful U.S. Senate panel is pushing to include new corporate transparency measures as part of broader financial reform legislation, according to former and current staffers.
For many, the question of whether it's easier to anonymously form a shell company in a Group of 20 country or a blacklisted tax haven will seem to have an obvious answer. Many would be wrong, however, according to a recent study.
U.S. lawmakers approved a measure Wednesday to pressure foreign banks to disclose details about their American client accounts as part of an effort to clamp down on tax evasion.
Banks should use client financial statements, tax returns and audits when determining whether a business can be exempted from currency transaction reporting duties, the U.S. Treasury Department said Monday.