On March 28, 2019, the House Financial Services Committee (“HFSC”) voted 45-15 to advance to the full House of Representatives the bill H.R. 1595, the “Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019” (the “SAFE Banking Act” or the “Act”). The SAFE Banking Act would shield banks and credit unions from federal regulatory penalties for … Continue Reading
Representatives of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) testified on Thursday, November 29 before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (“Banking Committee”) on anti-money laundering (“AML”) issues. The testimony highlighted some tensions between the views of … Continue Reading
On October 3, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Federal Reserve”), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), the National Credit Union Administration (“NCUA”), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), and the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) released an Interagency Statement on Sharing Bank Secrecy Act … Continue Reading
FinCEN’s Customer Due Diligence Rule for Financial Institutions (the “CDD Rule”) became effective yesterday. The rule, which was published by FinCEN on May 2016 (and slightly amended on September 29, 2017) is described in this Covington client alert. It requires covered financial institutions to: (i) adopt due diligence procedures to identify and verify a legal … Continue Reading
The Senate Banking Committee held its first hearing of 2018 earlier this week to discuss potential reform of the current U.S. regulatory framework for combating money laundering and other forms of illicit financing. Current proposals for reform include raising the mandatory reporting thresholds for currency transactions and suspicious activity, requiring the collection of beneficial ownership … Continue Reading
