A recent regulatory penalty citing a Brown Brothers Harriman executive made a compliance director at Bank of America wonder about his future personal liability, attendees of a business forum heard Tuesday.
Mexican officials will extend until February an upcoming deadline for nonbank companies to implement anti-money laundering controls, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
Without the threat of larger monetary settlements or prosecutions, financial institutions have little economic incentive to seriously enforce their anti-money laundering compliance controls, according to Peter Reuter, a professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland.
Border banks are accepting potentially fraudulent copies of cash declaration forms to justify bulk cash deposits by individuals traveling from Mexico into the United States, say law enforcement officials.
Financial institutions may need to update anti-money laundering controls, due diligence and screening associated with their third-party payment processor customers, particularly those based internationally, according to U.S. Treasury guidance issued Monday.
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.
A U.S. District Court judge Wednesday signed an order ending Wachovia Bank's deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department for failing to identify transactions potentially tied to drug cartels.
Federal regulators have increased their scrutiny of correspondent relationships that could be used to mask nested accounts for non-U.S. money remitters otherwise barred from American banks because of compliance risks.
The U.S. Treasury Department is reportedly investigating the role of Wachovia Bank compliance staff in the financial institution's failure to sufficiently scrutinize more than $420 billion in transactions tied to Mexican currency exchange businesses.
If March's record penalty against Wells Fargo & Co. has reminded compliance departments of the bite of anti-money laundering regulatory fines, it has also been a reminder of something else. With acquisitions come problems.
Federal bank examiners failed for at least four years to identify widespread signs of money laundering at Wachovia Bank, frustrating officials who helped levy a $160 million penalty against the institution last week.
Two U.S. companies paid a total of $200 million dollars this week for anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions violations. On Wednesday, Wells Fargo Co. agreed to pay the United States $160 million and the next day a Delaware corporation paid $40 million.
Wells Fargo & Co., the parent company of Wachovia Bank, will pay $160 million to settle anti-money laundering compliance problems tied to accounts with Mexican currency exchange companies, the company said Wednesday.
An expected settlement between the U.S. Justice Department and Wachovia Bank over lax anti-money laundering policies is highlighting the compliance risks of doing business with Mexican currency exchange companies.
While the effects of the global recession on the fight against corruption remain unclear, international officials have begun to wonder whether the stimulus efforts meant to spur the economy will also drive financial crime, according to Joseph Myers.
A global watchdog group is rethinking how it evaluates 11 of its 49 recommendations on combating financial crime, including whether it should consider tax evasion as a predicate offense to money laundering.
The Qatari government has failed to comply with nearly a third of the international anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulatory controls recommended by an intergovernmental watchdog.
Banks that merge or consolidate risk regulatory reprimands if they choose to scale back their anti-money laundering protections in the process, say consultants.
Recent enforcement actions and guidance suggest that U.S. banking examiners are ratcheting up their scrutiny of how banks monitor payment processors for anti-money laundering risks.
Rick Small, head of global compliance at GE Money, joins American Express Co. this month as vice president of anti-money laundering and sanctions risk management. Separately, Wachovia Bank has hired Dan Soto, former chief compliance officer at RBC Centura, to head its AML efforts.