The U.S. government's landmark case against HSBC Holdings Plc for knowingly turning a blind eye to financial crime is seemingly fated to end much as it began: complex and messy.
As many as a half dozen banks have severed relationships with foreign money services businesses for failing to register with the U.S. Treasury Department under rules that took effect earlier this year, say compliance professionals.
The nation's financial intelligence unit expects the number of bank suspicious activity reports on remote deposit capture services to rise in the coming years, according to a bureau report.
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.
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.
Financial institutions need to look before they leap into the expanding market of remote deposit capture in order to guard themselves from the growing problem of check fraud, say consultants.
The Mexican currency exchange industry will likely see a large number of mergers and closures this year after a number of prominent U.S. banks moved away from serving the market, say industry representatives and former Mexican regulators.
Wachovia Bank, which U.S. authorities have connected to a Mexican exchange house allegedly involved in a money laundering operation, is terminating its correspondent relationships with all money services businesses based outside the United States.
In a June 5 letter to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Miami attorney Frank Rubino, who represents Casa de Cambio Puebla, said federal agents on May 16 seized the companys funds deposited at a Miami branch of Wachovia Bank.