In Depth: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
FinCEN Seeks Comments on AML Plan for Non-Bank Mortgage Lenders and Originators
FinCEN published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking: Anti-Money Laundering Program (AML) and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Requirements for Non-Bank Residential Mortgage Lenders and Originators. FinCen has not taken any further action on the matter since comments were due on August 20, 2009.
- FinCEN's incremental approach to regulating residential mortgage lending or origination.
- Definitions of those engaged in such activities.
- Money laundering risks posed by non-bank residential mortgage lenders.
- How AML programs should be structured.
- SAR reporting.
- Whether any non-bank residential mortgage lenders and originators should be exempted from AML/SAR reporting requirements.
Resources
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
The FATF is an inter-governmental body created in 1989 by the G7 which is a meeting of the finance ministers from a group of seven industrialized nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. FATF's purpose is to develop and promote national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The United States is a member of FATF and has pledged to support its work. The FATF is therefore a "policy-making body" that works to generate the necessary political will, among its member countries, to implement FATF recommendations through legislative and regulatory reforms.
Learn more about FATF
Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
FinCEN is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat money laundering, terrorist financiers, and other financial crimes.
Learn more about FinCEN
Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), U.S. Department of Treasury
OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign states, organizations and individuals. As part of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI), OFAC works with TFI to safeguard the financial system against illicit use and to combat rogue nations, terrorist facilitators, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferators, money launderers, drug kingpins, and other national security threats. As part of its duties, OFAC is responsible for publishing the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List which identifies individuals and organizations with whom U.S. citizens and permanent residents cannot conduct business.
Learn more about OFAC
View the SDN List
United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - Currency Transaction Reports
The IRS is the U.S. federal government agency that collects taxes and enforces the internal revenue laws. The IRS requires each person engaged in a business or trade to report any cash transactions they receive in excess of $10,000 from one buyer as result of a single or related series of transactions. The transaction must be reported to the IRS using Form 8300. The information provided by Form 8300 provides valuable information to the IRS and FinCEN in their efforts to combat money laundering.
Learn more about Form 8300
