FinCEN has announced the expansion of its Geographical Targeting Orders (GTOs) for high-end cash buyers of real estate. The expansion is two-fold. First, FinCEN has expanded the scope of Form 8300 reportable transactions to...more
8/24/2017
/ Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
FATF ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
GTO ,
Money Laundering ,
Real Estate Investments ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Title Insurance
Part III of the Analysis of the Combatting Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017 -
As we recently blogged, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Diane Feinstein (D-California) introduced on...more
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Diane Feinstein (D-California) introduced on May 25, 2017 a bill, S. 1241, entitled the “Combatting Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017.” Although it is...more
Today we are very pleased to welcome guest blogger Greg Baer, who will address a series of significant issues posed by a detailed paper published by The Clearing House, a banking association and payments company that is owned...more
5/9/2017
/ ACH Payments ,
AML/CFT ,
AUSA ,
Banking Sector ,
BSA/AML ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Patriot Act ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Risk Management ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Terrorism Funding
The CFPB has proposed to delay the effective date of the final rule governing Prepaid Accounts from October 1, 2017 to April 1, 2018. The CFPB’s action is a direct response to ongoing dialogue between companies in the prepaid...more
FinCEN announced today that it is renewing the existing Geographical Targeting Orders (GTOs) issued in July 2016 that require all title insurance companies to identify and report on the natural persons behind shell companies...more
2/23/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banking Sector ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Cash Transactions ,
FATF ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
Geographic Targeting Order ,
Insurance Industry ,
Money Laundering ,
Real Estate Investments ,
Real Estate Market ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Shell Corporations ,
Title Insurance
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) has continued its efforts to promote improvements in Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance with the release in January 2017 of a new BSA/AML Self-Assessment Tool for...more
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESA) issued on February 10, 2017 draft rules regarding certain anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism steps for Member States of the European Union (EU)....more
2/13/2017
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
BSA/AML ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EU ,
European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Member State ,
Money Laundering ,
Money Transmitter ,
Payment Systems ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Terrorism Funding ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations
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 (NYDFS) announced today a revised regulation that will require all institutions subject to NYDFS supervision to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program meeting "certain...more
12/29/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Comment Period ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Framework ,
Data Protection ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Insurance Industry ,
NYDFS ,
Risk Management ,
Third-Party Service Provider
Three federal banking agencies have announced plans to develop new rules that would establish cyber risk management and resiliency standards for large interconnected entities under the agencies' supervision, as well as those...more
10/21/2016
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
FFIEC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Hackers ,
Handbooks ,
Incident Response Plans ,
OCC ,
Risk Management
The CFPB has issued its long-anticipated final rule for general purpose prepaid accounts. As expected, the new regulations expand the products covered by Regulation E, introduce significant new disclosure requirements,...more
10/7/2016
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Overdraft Fees ,
p2p ,
Prepaid Payment Products ,
Regulation E ,
Regulation Z
The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) will require all institutions subject to NYDFS supervision to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program meeting "certain regulatory minimum standards." All financial...more
9/20/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Cybersecurity ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Information Technology ,
Mortgages ,
NYDFS ,
Popular ,
Risk Management
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 New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has finalized a new regulation setting rigorous standards for monitoring and filtering programs to monitor transactions for potential anti-money laundering (AML) and Bank...more
7/6/2016
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Banking Sector ,
BSA/AML ,
Certificates of Compliance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Banks ,
Money Transmitter ,
NYDFS ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Senior Managers ,
Transaction Monitoring
The U.S. Treasury Department has released a white paper addressing the online marketplace lending industry. Based in part on the responses to Treasury's July 2015 Request for Information (RFI), the white paper offers a broad...more
5/16/2016
/ Community Development Entities ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Loans ,
Online Marketplace Lending ,
Peer-to-Peer ,
Request For Information ,
Small Business ,
Transparency ,
U.S. Treasury
As part of the U.S. Treasury Department's ongoing efforts to prevent bad actors from using U.S. companies to conceal money laundering, tax evasion, and other illicit financial activities, the Financial Crimes Enforcement...more
5/11/2016
/ Bad Actors ,
Bank Holding Company Act ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Covered Financial Institutions ,
Due Diligence ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
IRS ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Panama Papers ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Evasion
The federal body tasked with creating standards for the uniform regulation of financial institutions has released new information to assist examiners in evaluating mobile services offered by financial institutions and their...more
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to certain entities providing goods and services to the public. In the context of interactions with the public, mortgage lenders have obligations to ensure that information...more
The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has distributed a letter to various federal and state regulatory agencies and associations proposing the development of new cybersecurity regulations for financial...more
As previously reported, the Federal Communications Commission recently approved a Declaratory Ruling and Order (the Order) addressing a number of petitions that requested the FCC clarify its interpretations of the Telephone...more
7/14/2015
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Collection Agencies ,
Debt Collection ,
Declaratory Rulings ,
Exemptions ,
FCC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Healthcare ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Revocation ,
TCPA ,
Telemarketing ,
Text Messages
The CFPB has released a list of nine “Consumer Protection Principles” that are intended to express the CFPB’s “vision of consumer protection in new faster payments systems.” The CFPB has previously shown support for the...more
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has released its long-awaited Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (Assessment) to help financial institutions identify the inherent risks faced by a company and...more