Fighting Money Laundering. The Bank Secrecy Act
The Bank Secrecy Act (1970) has previously been described as one of the basic tools of anti-money laundering enlisted US Securities and Exchange Commission. However, this important document deserves much more attention than being just mentioned on the list.
When talking about the US addressing the crime of money laundering in countless legislative acts, the Bank Secrecy Act (1970) is the document that is the first one to be discussed as the Bank Secrecy Act basically eliminates all anonymous banking in the United States of America. It establishes the basic framework aimed to prevent and fight money laundering for financial institutions.
The Act gives the Treasury Department the ability to make banks keep records. Keeping records by the banks makes it easier to notice a laundering operation. The requirements of the Act include reporting all single transactions above USD 10 000 and multiple transactions totaling more than USD 10 000 to or from a single account in one day. It case a banker consistently violates this requirement, he can be sentenced to serve up to 10 years in prison.
So, the Bank Secrecy Act is vital in stopping the flow of laundered cash in the US.