All in BSA

FTC Sues Walmart for Money Transfer Fraud

Paula Parras
Regulatory Update, BSA

On June 28, 2022, the FTC sued Walmart for allowing its money transfer services to be used by fraudsters, who swindled consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In its lawsuit, the FTC alleges that the company turned a blind eye while scammers took advantage of its failure to properly secure the money transfer services offered at Walmart stores. The FTC is asking the court to order Walmart to return money to consumers and to impose civil penalties for Walmart’s violations.

FinCEN Issues Statement on BSA Due Diligence for Independent ATM Owners/Operators

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update, BSA

On June 22, 2022, FinCEN issued a statement to provide clarity to banks on how to apply a risk-based approach to conducting customer due diligence (CDD) on independent Automated Teller Machine (ATM) owners or operators, consistent with the requirements set out in FinCEN’s 2016 CDD Rule. Some independent ATM owners and operators have reported difficulty in obtaining and maintaining access to banking services, which jeopardizes the important financial services they provide, including to persons in underserved markets.

FinCEN’s Advisory on Elder Financial Exploitation

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update, BSA

On June 15, 2022, FinCEN issued an advisory to alert financial institutions to the rising trend of elder financial exploitation (EFE). EFE involves the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds, property, or assets, and is often perpetrated either through theft or scams. The advisory highlights new EFE typologies and red flags since FinCEN issued its first advisory on the issue in 2011.

FinCEN Seeks Comment on No-Action Letter Process

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update, BSA

On June 3, 2022, FinCEN issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to solicit public comment on questions relating to the implementation of a no-action letter process at FinCEN. A no-action letter is generally understood to be a form of enforcement discretion where an agency states by letter that it will not take an enforcement action against the submitting party for the specific conduct presented to the agency.

VIDEO: Filing Name in a Suspicious Activity Report

VIDEO: Filing Name in a Suspicious Activity Report

Adam Witmer
BSA

In this Compliance Clip, Adam discusses what FinCEN recommends for using as a title for the “filing name” of a Suspicious Activity Report. While most financial institutions probably figured this out over a decade ago, it’s important to make sure you are still following this guidance in your institution.

Treasury’s 2022 National Illicit Finance Strategy

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update, BSA

On May 13, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued its 2022 National Strategy for Combatting Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing, which identifies measures to increase transparency in the U.S. financial system and strengthen the AML/CFT framework. The 2022 Strategy addresses the key risks from the 2022 National Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing risk assessments and reflects the challenges posed by a world impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the increasing digitization of financial services, and increasing levels of corruption and fraud.

VIDEO: BSA Exam Manual PEPs

VIDEO: BSA Exam Manual PEPs

Adam Witmer
BSA

In this Compliance Clip, Adam talks about how the section for politically exposed persons (PEPs) in the BSA Exam Manual was recently updated in December of 2021. While the regulators have said that the BSA Exam manual updates shouldn’t be anything new, the changes to the PEP section of the manual are quite interesting as it seems to back peddle from what was said in the 2014 edition. This video is a must watch for your BSA/AML team.

A Transcript of this video is now available.

FinCEN SAR Filings

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update, BSA

FinCEN has updated its “SAR Filings by Industry” webpage to include data from 2021. In addition to this webpage, FinCEN has an interactive map and and Interactive SAR Stats which allow BSA professionals to analyze what types of suspicious activity are being reported in their areas. As this data allows specific sorting of the data, BSA professionals are able to sort by many different fields including primary regulator, county, etc.

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