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
FinCEN’s recent preliminary rulemaking aims to enhance and modernize regulations with requirements and priorities that affect a broad range of “financial institutions” across industries—but lacks concrete guidance on...more
7/26/2024
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Risk Assessment ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations
On June 14, 2024, President Biden declared June 15th World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. In honor of the day, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reminded financial institutions (FIs) to remain vigilant in...more
6/24/2024
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Elder Abuse ,
Exploitation ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Scams ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Vulnerability Assessments
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)
Summary -
On September 30, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a unit of the U.S. Department of Treasury, issued its final rule, Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements (Final Rule),...more
First Blog Post in an Extended Series on Legislative Changes to BSA/AML Regulatory Regime -
Change is upon us. The U.S. House and Senate have passed – over a Presidential veto – the National Defense Authorization Act...more
Regulators Provide Greater Transparency into BSA/AML Enforcement Process -
On August 13, 2020 the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, and Office of the...more
8/24/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
BSA/AML ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Compliance ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Internal Controls ,
Joint Statements
On December 3, 2019, four federal agencies – the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), and the Office of the...more
12/5/2019
/ Agribusiness ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Cannabis Products ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Controlled Substances ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Deregulation ,
Farm Bill ,
FDIC ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
New Guidance ,
OCC ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Small Business Loans ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
USDA
Testimony Supports Bill Requiring States to Collect Beneficial Ownership Information at Entity Formation -
As we have blogged, the proposed Corporate Transparency Act of 2019 (the “Act”) seeks to ensure that persons who...more
5/24/2019
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corporate Structures ,
FATF ,
FBI ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Money Laundering ,
OCC ,
Regulatory Burden ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Senate Committees ,
Tax Evasion ,
Transparency
FinCEN Cites Low Risk of Money Laundering and High Regulatory Burden of Rule -
On September 7, 2018, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued permanent exceptive relief (“Relief”) to the Beneficial...more
9/17/2018
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Due Diligence ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Know Your Customers ,
Money Laundering ,
Regulatory Burden ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements
Congress enacted the safe harbor provision of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), codified at 31 U.S.C. §5318(g)(3)(A), to shield financial institutions, their officers and employees from civil liability for reporting known or...more
In part two of our review of the 2016 developments in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the criminal money laundering statutes, forfeiture, and related issues, we discuss four additional key...more
2/7/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Bitcoin ,
BSA/AML ,
Civil Forfeiture ,
Currency Transaction Reports (CTR) ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Institutions ,
Forfeiture ,
Money Laundering ,
Virtual Currency
2016 was a busy year for developments in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the criminal money laundering statutes, forfeiture, and related issues. In part one of our year-in-review, we discuss six key...more
2/3/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Casinos ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
FATF ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Fines ,
Gambling ,
Gaming ,
Geographic Targeting Order ,
Money Laundering ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
NYDFS ,
Offshore Funds ,
Panama Papers ,
Popular ,
Real Estate Market ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Tax Evasion
The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has finalized a new regulation setting forth rigorous standards for monitoring and filtering programs to monitor transactions for potential anti-money laundering (AML) and...more
7/11/2016
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
BSA/AML ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Foreign Banks ,
Lenders ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Transmitter ,
Mortgages ,
New Regulations ,
NYDFS ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Transaction Monitoring
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued two rulings regarding the status of virtual currency miners and investors as money service businesses (MSB) under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The rulings address...more
HSBC Holdings, London, and two of its U.S. subsidiaries have been ordered to pay a record $1.92 billion in fines and penalties for anti-money laundering (AML) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) violations....more