On June 29, 2017, the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued for public inspection a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) that would restrict a Chinese commercial bank’s access to the US financial system based on a finding that the bank was involved in money laundering activities involving North Korea. This action coincided […]

Thomas Haider, former chief compliance officer at Moneygram, won’t be on anyone’s AML Compliance payroll for the next three years—and his wallet is also a quarter-million dollars lighter. The terms of Haider’s settlement with FinCEN were announced yesterday. In a case closely watched by the Compliance industry, FinCEN announced yesterday that Thomas Haider has agreed […]

Below is a link to bankersonline who have collected information on recent monetary penalties assessed and C&D Orders imposed by FinCEN or federal and state financial institution regulators (and others) for deficiencies in BSA/AML programs. The cases are arranged in reverse chronological order, and include the name and asset size (when known) of the organization […]

The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a final ruling imposing prohibition on the opening or maintaining of correspondent accounts for, or on behalf of, FBME Bank Ltd, the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) announced on Sunday. The CBC took over the operations of FBME in 2014 after the latter was named […]

First gaining popularity in the early 2000s, crowdfunding is a way of soliciting financial contributions from people around the globe through an online platform.  Since this time we’ve all heard the emotional stories of people and charities in need, the heartfelt pleas for help in funding a start-up or pet project, and then a link […]

On 11 May 2016, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published its long-awaited final rule on customer due diligence (CDD) requirements for financial institutions, as a result of a 4-year drafting and consultation process started in the wake of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) 2012 revision of its 40 Recommendations. The requirements focus on […]

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today announced the assessment of a $4 million civil money penalty (CMP) against Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust Company of Coral Gables, Florida, for willfully violating federal anti-money laundering (AML) laws, known collectively as the Bank Secrecy Act. Since first warned of its deficiencies in 2010, Gibraltar’s compliance failures […]

On January 19, FinCEN issued an advisory, FIN-2016-A001, to provide financial institutions with guidance on reviewing their obligations and risk-based approaches with respect to certain jurisdictions. According to the advisory, on October 23, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) updated two documents identifying the following: jurisdictions that are either subject to the FATF’s call to […]