Imagine this: Nancy at ABC Credit Union calls Rayleen at MainStreet Bank to inquire about 3 large ACH transactions moving between accounts of the two financial institutions (FIs). The three transactions appeared in the transaction monitoring system at ABC Credit Union, prompting an AML investigation. Nancy suspects their member is a money mule. Rayleen at […]
What Do I Need to Know About Proliferation Financing?
When FinCEN issued their AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism) Priorities on June 30, 2021 1, one of those priorities was proliferation financing. But what exactly is “Proliferation Financing” and how should financial institutions manage this risk? FinCEN did not really give much insight into any of the priorities or indicate what they expect […]
Human Trafficking, Human Slavery, Trafficking in Persons, Human Smuggling – Part 2
A global problem. What can we do as US financial institutions to help bring it to an end? Last month we discussed the global blight of human trafficking under its various names. It is second only to global drug trade in terms of its profitability for the criminals who traffic in persons. It produces well […]
AML in the Age of Cryptocurrency (Part 1)
Introduction Billions of dollars in fines have been paid by the banking industry for “inadequate” AML programs even though our biggest banks devote huge sums and thousands of people in their efforts to comply. The emerging virtual currency business is just getting its “toes wet” in the serious and high-stakes business of AML compliance. To make […]
Who Owns the Money? – Part Two
Its that time again, to revisit and amend our BSA policies, procedures, risk models and training. It seems it never ends, and it is for this very reason we are going to revisit our February 2015 article, ‘Who Owns the Money?’. I can hear it already, what now? Who changed it, why, etc, etc, etc. […]