Anti-Money Laundering Guidance Issued by American Bank Regulators
On July 18, 2007, US banking regulators issued a joint statement aimed at improving the consistency of anti-money-laundering enforcement actions among oversight agencies.
To cut the long story short, the statement is intended to bring clarity to the process of anti-money- laundering enforcement by means of issuing a guidance encompassing the expectations and views of banking regulators, so that banks would use this guidance.
According to US Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner, it is very essential to be uniform and transparent about policies, especially when it comes to enforcing anti-money-laundering regulations.
Director of the American Bankers Association’s Center for Regulatory Compliance Richard Riese said that “it’s a good thing for banks to have a clear and consistent statement across the agencies about how they’re going to use a very specific power”.
In the statement, the agencies’ current practices on enforcement with respect to (Bank Secrecy Act) compliance are reflected as well as the circumstances under which the agencies are to issue a cease-and-desist order in compliance with the statutory provisions are described by the financial regulators.
Also, the statement describes the way banks can step afoul of anti-money laundering laws.