Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Programs - Pay Now or Pay Later?

Compliance is now more than a mandate - it is a prudent business strategy. TowerGroup believes that US banks must examine what caused the current enforcement actions, what corrective measures are being imposed on the institutions involved, and what relevance these factors may have to their own business. In 2004, regulators intensified their focus on the role of funds transfers, chiefly to ensure that proper control channels exist in their operations as well as in the foreign correspondent banking area. TowerGroup expects that banks will now increase their scrutiny and controls of funds transfers including effectively monitoring funds transfers and establishing policies and procedures to report potentially suspicious activity, identifying high-risk customers and wires, and taking steps to ensure that funds transfers are not used to launder money or finance terrorism. In TowerGroups new research titled, Pay Now or Pay Later: Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Programs Offer Road Map for US Funds Transfer Compliance, Towergroup, explores what has been required of some banks involved in high-profile AML cases and offers a perspective on what institutions should take away from the imposed actions.