On August 29, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Center (“FinCEN”) published Anti-Money Laundering Regulations for Residential Real Estate Transfers (“Final Rule”) regarding residential real estate. The Federal Register...more
9/11/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Assessment ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
On August 1, 2024, the Department of Justice launched its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (the “Pilot Program”). Under this 3-year initiative managed by DOJ’s Criminal Division, a whistleblower may be eligible...more
8/12/2024
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Money Laundering ,
Pilot Programs ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has published a two-page reference guide (“Guide”) comparing the requirements for reporting beneficial ownership information (“BOI”) to FinCEN under the Corporate...more
8/5/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
Yesterday we were very pleased to welcome guest blogger, Don Fort, who is the Director of Investigations at Kostelanetz LLP, and the past Chief of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation (CI) Division....more
On July 3, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) as part of a broader initiative to “strengthen, modernize, and improve” financial institutions’ anti-money...more
7/16/2024
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banks ,
Broker-Dealer ,
BSA/AML ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
NPRM ,
Popular ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Assessment ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations
On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Corner Post, Inc. v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in which the Court determined when a Section 702 claim under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)...more
7/5/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Corner Post Inc v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ,
Debit Cards ,
Federal Reserve ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Interchange Fees ,
Regulation II ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statute of Limitations
After several years of monitoring and reporting on artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services, the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) has embarked on initial rulemaking efforts and issued a request for information...more
6/27/2024
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Machine Learning ,
Non-Discrimination Rules ,
Request For Information ,
Risk Management ,
U.S. Treasury ,
UDAAP
The U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) has released a Request for Information on the Uses, Opportunities, and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) in the Financial Services Sector (“RFI”). Written comments are...more
6/17/2024
/ Algorithms ,
AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Data Privacy ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Investor Protection ,
Machine Learning ,
Money Laundering ,
Request For Information ,
Risk Management ,
U.S. Treasury
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has issued its Year in Review for FY 2023 (“YIR”). It consists of five pages of infographics. According to FinCEN’s press release...more
6/11/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Currency Transaction Reports (CTR) ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Information Sharing ,
Money Laundering ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
I am very pleased to co-chair again the Practicing Law Institute’s 2024 Anti-Money Laundering Conference on May 23, 2024, starting at 9 a.m. in New York City (the event also will be virtual). I am also really fortunate to be...more
5/9/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Blockchain ,
BSA/AML ,
Cryptoassets ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Gaming ,
Money Laundering ,
Risk Management
On May 3, 2024, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) jointly released the...more
5/8/2024
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Due Diligence ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
OCC ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Third-Party ,
Third-Party Risk
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) recently issued a Financial Trend Analysis (“Analysis”) focusing on patterns and trends identified in Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) data linked to Elder Financial Exploitation...more
5/2/2024
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Elder Abuse ,
Exploitation ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
New Guidance ,
Popular ,
Scams ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
On April 18, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued a draft version of Form 1099-DA, a proposed information reporting form regarding certain digital asset sales and exchanges that “digital asset brokers” will need to...more
4/24/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Wallets ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Know Your Customers ,
Reporting Requirements
On February 16, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Center (“FinCEN”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) regarding residential real estate. The final version of the NPRM published in the Federal Register is 47...more
2/23/2024
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Broker-Dealer ,
BSA/AML ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
NPRM ,
Real Estate Investments ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has been very active in the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) / Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) space, as reflected by a recent series of individual prosecutions and corporate non-prosecution agreements...more
2/1/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Casinos ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Diligence ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Money Laundering ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
Today we are very pleased to welcome, once again, guest blogger Dr. Kateryna Boguslavska of the Basel Institute on Governance (“Basel Institute”), who will discuss the Basel Institute’s release of the 12th annual Public...more
1/22/2024
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Cryptocurrency ,
FATF ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
INTERPOL ,
Money Laundering ,
Popular ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations
On December 14, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) granted an unusual ex parte application to serve third-party discovery subpoenas on U.S.-based Deutsche Bank entities....more
1/5/2024
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Consent Order ,
Danske Bank ,
Deutsche Bank ,
Ex Parte ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
International Litigation ,
Money Laundering ,
Subpoenas
This week, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued the much-anticipated final rule (“Final Rule”) under the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) regarding access to beneficial ownership information (“BOI”)...more
12/22/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Money Laundering ,
Popular ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
YouTube
In its Fall 2023 Semiannual Risk Perspective, published on December 7, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) reported on key issues facing the federal banking system. In evaluating the overall soundness of...more
12/15/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Machine Learning ,
OCC ,
Peer-to-Peer ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Third-Party Relationships
On October 23, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) entitled Proposal of Special Measure Regarding Convertible Virtual Currency Mixing, as a Class of...more
11/1/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Convertible Virtual Currencies (CVCs) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
NPRM ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Virtual Currency
The new Director of FinCEN, Andrea Gacki, addressed several key topics on October 3, 2023 at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (“ACAMS”) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Specifically, Director...more
10/9/2023
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Broker-Dealer ,
BSA/AML ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
Investment Adviser ,
Money Laundering ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Whistleblowers
On July 28th, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), reintroduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act (the “Act”), legislation aimed at closing...more
8/14/2023
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
CFTC ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Digital Assets ,
FBAR ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Services Business ,
NDAA ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Legislation Targets Unhosted Wallets, Validators and Digital Asset ATMs -
On July 28th, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), reintroduced the...more
8/11/2023
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Wallets ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Services Business ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
In an unusual move, Laura Akahoshi, former Rabobank (the “Bank”) Chief Compliance Officer (“CCO”), filed on July 6, 2023 an opposition to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (“OCC”) dismissal of its own...more
7/21/2023
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banking Examinations ,
BSA/AML ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Money Laundering ,
OCC ,
Popular ,
Rabobank ,
White Collar Crimes
The report examines the vulnerabilities in DeFi, including potential gaps in the United States’ Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering regulatory, supervisory, and enforcement regimes for DeFi. We first discuss how Treasury...more
6/22/2023
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Risk Mitigation ,
State Regulators ,
U.S. Treasury