Tag:

AML

Toronto Dominion Bank – Hey Criminals, Bank Here!

Toronto Dominion Bank, known as TD Bank, is one of the largest banks in the United States. In early October of this year, TD Bank agreed to pay almost $2 billion in penalties for its involvement in money laundering practices and “violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).” Over the span of a decade, TD Bank failed to stop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drug money from flowing through its system and became a common bank for criminal enterprises to use. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland discussed how TD Bank made “its services convenient for criminals” when they decided to maximize their profit margins over complying with the law.

What Does The “ENABLERS Act” Mean for Attorney Regulation?

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury committed to safeguarding the financial system by detecting and preventing money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and other illicit activity since the 1970s. The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) expanded the definition of “financial institution.” The ENABLERS Act (Act) is the latest proposed amendment that seeks to expand the provisions of the BSA to several different professions, such as lawyers, trust companies, investment advisors, accountants, public relations firms, and art dealers, amongst others. Should this amendment pass, it will be the most significant money laundering reform yet. It will expand its reach by requiring these financial service providers to adopt anti-money laundering safeguards to close the loophole in the U.S. anti-money laundering system. The safeguard will require these professionals to help prevent and report cases of money laundering by implementing due diligence rules in their practice to ensure that the money entering the system is not “dirty.” This is currently not required of lawyers or any of these other professions.

New York Law Could Shake Up Compliance Departments

Gilbert Carrillo Executive Editor Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2017   The state of New York is in the process of implementing a new rule requiring some financial U.S. and foreign institutions, with New York offices, to prove that their transaction monitoring and sanctions filtering programs for catching criminal activity do in fact …
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