Enforcement against Citibank serves as reminder that compliance counts in product development
NEW YORK, April 12 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - A financial institution’s anti-money laundering team must have the authority to question account relationships and business plans, and any objections must be taken seriously. That was one of the key lessons to be learned from the last week’s regulatory enforcement action against Citibank over AML weaknesses, experts said.
A provision of the cease-and-desist (C&D) order, levied by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), obliges Citibank to ensure that its compliance staff has the authority to implement a Bank Secrecy Act compliance program “and, as needed, question account relationships and business plans.” (more…)
U.S. Treasury wants financial institutions to help combat identity theft-related tax frauds
By Brett Wolf
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - U.S. Treasury Department reminded financial institutions of their obligation to lend a hand as the Internal Revenue Service struggles to crack down on rampant schemes using identity theft to obtain fraudulent tax refunds via electronic filings.
“Financial institutions are critical in identifying tax refund fraud because the methods for tax-refund distribution – direct deposit into demand deposit accounts, issuance of paper checks, and direct deposit into prepaid access card accounts – are often negotiated and deposited at various financial services providers,” Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) stated in an advisory issued Friday. (more…)
U.S. financial institutions seen lacking anti-corruption policies for domestic politicians
By Brett Wolf
ST. LOUIS/NEW YORK, March 7 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – Despite an international push for financial institutions to crack down on corruption and money laundering linked to political figures, it remains unclear how firms in the United States and abroad will respond.
Some U.S. financial institutions say they have taken steps to address the specific corruption and money laundering risks associated with American political figures and those close to them. Others say they have not, and to date, regulators’ expectations are unclear. (more…)
Regulators also reverse game the industries they regulate according to “A Regulator’s Exercise of Career Option To Quit and Join A Regulated Firm’s Management with Applications to Financial Institutions” at https://sites.google.com/site/behavioral econometrics/publications
Some U.S. banks awash in ID theft tax-fraud proceeds as IRS cracks down
By Brett Wolf
NEW YORK, Feb. 3 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Despite a new federal crackdown announced this week aimed at combating tax refund fraud involving the use of stolen identities, current law enforcement efforts are not enough and fraudsters are still pumping massive sums of tax fraud proceeds through U.S. banks, sources told Thomson Reuters.
“IRS and Justice should have been doing this three years ago. This widespread criminal activity is more profitable than drug dealing,” said regulatory consultant and investigator Jim Dowling, a former Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator special agent who also acted as an anti-money laundering (AML) advisor to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. (more…)
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