The trend of holding executives personally liable for anti-money laundering and compliance failures by their organizations continues. On October 1, the CFTC announced the filing of a civil enforcement action charging five entities and three individuals that own the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange with operating an… Read More »BitMEX – Executive Liability for Anti-Money Laundering Failures
Best of luck to those AML and Compliance Officers in private banks, non-federally insured credit unions, and certain trust companies. On September 14, 2020 FinCEN adopted a final rule making the AML Program, Customer Identification Program and beneficial ownership rules applicable to your institutions. It’s… Read More »FinCEN Eliminates AML Exemptions
Politically Exposed Persons (or ‘PEPs’) are non-US individuals who are or have been entrusted with a prominent public or governmental function, as well as their immediate family members and close associates. Due to their position or relationship, PEPs may present a higher risk that their… Read More »Not All PEPs Are Created Equal
The OCC is soliciting public comment on 11 topics related to the ‘digitization’ of banking, including how firms can better leverage technology in responding to regulatory requirements such as AML, Fraud Detection and Customer Identification. DigiPli met with the OCC to discuss its digital AML solution during… Read More »OCC Seeking Comments on Digitization of Banking
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) just released their 2020 examination priorities. Of the seven stated focus areas, three are key to FinTechs – cyber security, anti-money laundering and financial innovation. OCIE also indicated that they’ll target newly registered advisors, and RIAs who… Read More »SEC Releases 2020 Examination Priorities
The OCC released their 2020 Bank Supervision Operating Plan, which unsurprisingly features BSA/AML compliance in the number two spot. This year’s plan seems to be weighted even more heavily towards systems and technology as the OCC will, among other areas, focus on “ … determining whether… Read More »OCC Releases 2020 Bank Supervision Operating Plan
In a speech at the 2019 Money Transmitter Regulators Association Annual Conference on September 11, 2019, FinCEN Deputy Director Jamal El-Hindi reaffirmed that FinCEN is “striving to pave the way for more innovation” in BSA and AML compliance. Click here for the full text of the speech.
FATF published new Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers on June 29, 2019, which updates the virtual currency guidance that organization published in 2015.
A Senate Committee Hearing on June 19, 2019 discussed plugging the “gap” in US AML requirements, by requiring formal disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners of US shell companies and LLCs. However, sentiment seemed to be leaning towards maintaining a private list of UBOs that would… Read More »Senate Committee Hearing Discusses ‘Plugging the Gap’ in US AML requirements
The Treasury Department’s Sigal Mandelker gave a good at speech at a SIFMA conference. She highlighted a few of FinCEN’s recent AML enforcement actions, and discussed regulatory efforts relating to virtual currencies. She also urged firms to “supercharge” their efforts to help FinCEN fight financial… Read More »Treasury Department Speech on Enforcement Actions & Virtual Currencies
