Drug traffickers and other criminals are increasingly seeking out indirect relationships with community banks and credit unions to move and launder their illicit proceeds after being turned away by larger financial institutions, say sources.
A World Bank study set to be published next month will suggest that the compliance risks often associated with money remittance firms may not be as serious as they seem.
A U.S. Treasury Department official told banking representatives at a recent roundtable meeting not to expect safe harbor protections for providing accounts to money services businesses, according to multiple sources.
San Francisco-based AirBnB isn't exactly what springs to mind when thinking of money services businesses, but the 6-year-old company deemed itself just that last year by registering with the U.S. Treasury Department.
Short of abiding by the Community Reinvestment Act and other prohibitions against discriminatory lending, banks still have the right to choose who they'll do business with. While that seems like an obvious statement, it gets drowned out in the debate about "de-risking."
Not all money transmitters are overly vulnerable to money launderers and terrorist financiers and banks should refrain from automatically closing their accounts, U.S. Treasury Department officials said Monday.
U.S. authorities will clarify in pending guidance that not all remittance companies are susceptible to illicit financial activity, a government official said Wednesday.
Financial institutions have quickly adopted a U.S. Treasury Department ruling last month that relieved them from having to report personal data on the drivers of armored cars, say industry representatives.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an administrative ruling Friday clarifying when financial institutions must file currency transaction reports for transactions with armored car companies.
Financial institutions should be looking for signs that any of their armored car customers has become involved in check cashing, which would qualify them as money services businesses and subject them to BSA requirements.