Banks driving compliance changes
By Christine Duhaime, B.A., J.D., Financial Crime and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist
According to this story in Reuters, banks in the US are reluctantly driving American casinos towards greater anti-money laundering compliance. Casinos are bank clients and pursuant to anti-money laundering legislation, banks have to monitor their clients’ transactions for risks in any event and report certain transactions regardless of the sources, including clients that are themselves reporting entities. In Canada, money services businesses are usually independently audited by AML specialists at least once a year in order to maintain bank accounts – a condition imposed on them by banks because of the heightened risks some of them pose. The Department of Justice recently subpoenaed 50 banks that process transactions for several industries such as payday lenders and apparently is looking for compliance by the banks with anti-money laundering requirements in respect of its clients that are high risk.