Four months into the tenure of its new director, the nation's financial intelligence unit is positioning itself to more aggressively enforce anti-money laundering regulations and closely work with law enforcement officials.
Though none can predict the future, one thing in the AML world seems certain: the jobs of compliance officers won't get any easier in 2013.
Banking regulators issued 23 enforcement actions in the first half of 2009, slightly more than for the same period in 2008, according to Inform data.
A Tennessee bank must improve the way it exempts customers from anti-money laundering reporting requirements and enlist the aid of independent consultants "to shore up deficiencies in compliance training, customer risk assessments and independent testing," according to a regulatory order.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued enforcement actions requiring that two banks in Texas and California improve their Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions compliance programs.
While regulators don't have to make concession to an institution facing an enforcement action, there is usually room to negotiate the terms of penalties, lawyers say.
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