Competing U.S. proposals that would require companies to disclose their beneficial owners have gained unprecedented momentum in recent months, with no signs of a consolidated measure in sight.
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 pair of New York federal lawmakers Wednesday will reintroduce legislation designed to eliminate the purported ease with which U.S. corporate entities can be used to launder illicit proceeds.
Draft U.S. Treasury Department rules on customer due diligence requirements for financial institutions would not prevent criminals from exploiting shell companies, according to Elise Bean, former staff director and chief counsel of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Lawmakers slated to take control of the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will likely bring more than individual agendas to the powerful investigative body. For banks, they may bring a reprieve.
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 Obama administration is pushing lawmakers to introduce legislation that would require corporations to obtain tax identification data that could be turned over to investigators.
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.
Large banks need to clearly delineate which senior executives are responsible for Bank Secrecy Act compliance violations, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency said in a speech Monday.
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 recently adopted legislative amendment that would authorize punitive measures against foreign banks and countries that facilitate U.S. tax evasion faces significant opposition in the House of Representatives, say congressional sources and advocacy groups.
Company formation agents would be required to implement anti-money laundering programs to better vet their clients under a broad measure introduced Tuesday by two influential U.S. lawmakers.
U.S. banks could be required to deny credit card transactions from foreign financial institutions linked to tax evaders under a measure introduced Tuesday by the chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Lawmakers proposed a measure Wednesday that would potentially prohibit banks from processing credit card transactions for merchants and maintaining correspondent accounts for financial institutions deemed vulnerable to money laundering and tax evasion.
U.S. financial regulators reiterated calls Friday for banks to verify the beneficial owners of corporate accounts, including trusts and private investment companies, as part of their anti-money laundering programs.
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on a Senate-approved bill that would pressure foreign financial institutions to disclose their U.S. clients and extend government subpoena powers of financial records.
The exploitation of shell companies by arms traffickers, terrorist financiers and other criminals represents a serious danger to U.S. national security, a high ranking U.S. Treasury Department official said Thursday.
A government watchdog's call for stronger anti-money laundering controls on a federal bank bailout program could result in a "significant step up" in compliance duties for companies involved, say consultants.
Senator Carl Levin reintroduced a bill Wednesday that would mandate that states collect information on the beneficial owners of corporations in an effort to stop shell company abuse.