The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged GWFS Equities Inc., a Colorado-based registered broker-dealer that is an affiliate of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co., with violating federal securities laws governing the filing of Suspicious Activity Reports. Those charges have been settled in the familiar manner: a censure, a $1.5 million penalty, and the firm’s… Read More >>
Score Priority Settles AML Case with FINRA
Broker-dealer Score Priority has settled with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which charged the New York City-based firm with anti-money laundering (AML) violations. According to FINRA, the firm, which changed its name from Just2Trade, Inc. in January 2020, “failed to develop and implement an anti-money laundering (AML) program reasonably designed to achieve and monitor the… Read More >>
Firms Must Bolster AML Systems: FATF President
The G20 countries have recommitted to the battle against financial crime. One reason: The president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the self-described “global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog,” has prompted them to do more. In a plain-spoken speech at the recent Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting of the G20 countries,… Read More >>
Firms May Need to Revamp AML Policies: Report
U.S. banks may need to update their anti-money-laundering (AML) policies as a result of key provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 (NDAA), which primarily covers appropriations for the U.S. Department of Defense programs, activities, and military personnel. However, the NDAA also covers many “matters relating to foreign nations,” according to the overview… Read More >>
Julius Baer & DoJ Resolve FIFA Case for $79M
Swiss private bank Julius Baer reports that it has reached a $79.7 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice resolving a money-laundering probe involving the Zurich-based world soccer group, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The U.S. settlement follows actions by the Swiss financial services regulator to close its case against the bank. Justice… Read More >>
FinCEN Moves to Overhaul AML Practices
Changes are coming to banks’ the anti-money laundering practices and procedures. The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has unveiled an early look at those proposed prospective changes in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), soliciting public comment on pending regulatory amendments under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The FinCEN’s proposal is likely… Read More >>
Nasdaq & Caspian Take On Automated AML Investigations
Nasdaq Sytem Targets Gap in AML Inquiries Nasdaq just launched a “cloud-deployed” anti-money laundering (AML) system, the Nasdaq Automated Investigator for AML, that is intended to help financial services firms use IT to detect evidence of money laundering. The new system has been designed in partnership with Caspian, a company based in Newcastle upon Tyne,… Read More >>
NICE Actimize Targets Mid-Market via ‘Xceed’
The just-launched Xceed platform from NICE Actimize brings together aspects of anti-money laundering (AML), fraud prevention, artificial intelligence (AI), and behavioral analytics in a cloud-native offering. Cloud-native systems have been developed specifically for the cloud computing environment, and are intended to leverage the advantages of the cloud. They are not platforms that were originally designed… Read More >>
Money Laundering Analysis Needs AI & ML: Q&A
(Editor’s note: False positives are a problem for financial services firms implementing know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) systems, says Arin Ray, a senior analyst with the Securities and Investments practice of market research firm Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman. Ray is the author of the recent Celent report, “Applying Advanced Analytics… Read More >>
AML Costs Hit $14.3M Per Large U.S. Firm
Complying with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations costs financial services firms based in the United States and Canada more than $31.5 billion per year. That is the conclusion drawn by a recent report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The report, entitled “The True Cost of Anti-Money Laundering Compliance in the United States and Canada,” is derived from… Read More >>
