The government is warning banks to beef up compliance programs to defend against money laundering and related offenses. The push comes as proposed regulations trigger a shift from a flexible, risk-based approach to customer due diligence to a more prescriptive one that comes with hard-and-fast rules and thresholds. Earlier this month, the Treasury Department’s Financial […]
Joe Mont
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Banks Revisit AML Compliance Amid Push for Stricter Rules.
The government is warning banks to beef up compliance programs to defend against money laundering and related offenses. The push comes as proposed regulations trigger a shift from a flexible, risk-based approach to customer due diligence to a more prescriptive one that comes with hard-and-fast rules and thresholds. Earlier this month, the Treasury Department’s Financial […]
Posted inUncategorized
OFAC Amends ‘50 Percent Rule’ for Sanctions
With the complexities of determining ownership levels vexing many international companies as they comply with ever-expanding sanctions laws, new guidance was issued this week by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control regarding entities owned 50 percent or more in the aggregate by more than one blocked person. Entities blocked by either an Executive […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
FinCEN Stresses Compliance, Culture in AML Efforts
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is stressing the importance of compliance and culture to ensure anti-money laundering efforts are successful. This week, FinCEN released a six-page compliance advisory to financial institutions and FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery doubled down on that message during a speech before AML professionals in Washington D.C. “Shortcomings identified […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Investigation Finds Ways Non-Public Information May Leak
How confidential are closed-door meetings at the Securities and Exchange Commission? If an executive session involving representatives of JPMorgan last year is at all typical, not very. A new report by the Commission’s Office of Inspector General (website The Hill obtained and published a copy) found a variety of ways that nonpublic information from SEC […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Values Guru Dov Seidman on the State of Corporate Ethics
In the latest of our conversations with leading thinkers in compliance, governance, and accounting, we caught up recently with Dov Seidman, founder and CEO of LRN, a strategic advisory firm that specializes in ethics training and corporate culture building. We spoke to Seidman about how the compliance and ethics landscape has changed in the […]
Posted inUncategorized
New Money Market Rules Could Bring Unintended Consequences
After years of delays spanning two chairmen and multiple commissioners, the Securities and Exchange Commission last month enacted new rules to improve the stability of Money Market Mutual Funds and stave off potential runs that could collapse individual funds or even crash the nearly $3 trillion marketplace. Proponents view the changes as long-overdue; but some […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
New Wave of Sanctions Against Russia Stresses Compliance Programs
A new round of sanctions leveled against Russia last week by the United States and European Union, along with previous sanctions for Russia’s role in the violence that has plagued Ukraine are imposing greater compliance difficulties for multinational companies. Sanctions compliance is nothing new, of course, and U.S. officials, in recent years, have frequently wielded […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC Changes Mind, Awards $400K to Once-Rejected Whistleblower
On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission reversed an earlier decision and decided to award a $400,000 bounty to a whistleblower. The claim, which reported fraud to the SEC, was initially dismissed because a self-regulatory organization was already investigating the matter. Due to anonymity protections, SEC background on the case was sparse. This whistleblower provided […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Top UK Regulators Reject Whistleblower Rewards
The United Kingdom’s Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority this week recommended that Parliament not create a financial reward program for whistleblowers, similar to one administered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In early July, a government response issued by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills made the same recommendation. “The government […]
