Will the $100M MoneyGram penalty encourage the payments industry to treat AML compliance more seriously?
Payments
Asked by Question Bot11/Aug/20131 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 11/Aug/2013
This is certainly not a one-off thing. The US is taking AML and KYC issues to a new level, which essentially means, be in strict compliance or be out of business or worse, do time in prison. FinCEN has been struggling to get MSB / Money Transfer companies to comply with the various regulations and rulings when it comes to AML and KYC.
Most are in compliance, but there are too many loose ends. If the ends are tightened then many Money Transfer Businesses complain of false positives or unnecessary hassle.
On the flip side, the US Regulators have found that large banks (read: HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered) and large MSBs cannot ignore the US market, and now are levying fines to make sweet incomes.
I mean seriously, with one flick of the wrist, the NY Regulator netted 400+ Million Dollars. What a great way to make money!
The US Regulators are insistent that each and every person who gets money from the US, or is channeled from the US, is accounted for (presumably for intelligence purposes - what else?) and this is creating problems for many.
To sum it - I don't think this is the last we have seen of them. More fines and license cancellations (or threats thereof) are imminent.
Most are in compliance, but there are too many loose ends. If the ends are tightened then many Money Transfer Businesses complain of false positives or unnecessary hassle.
On the flip side, the US Regulators have found that large banks (read: HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered) and large MSBs cannot ignore the US market, and now are levying fines to make sweet incomes.
I mean seriously, with one flick of the wrist, the NY Regulator netted 400+ Million Dollars. What a great way to make money!
The US Regulators are insistent that each and every person who gets money from the US, or is channeled from the US, is accounted for (presumably for intelligence purposes - what else?) and this is creating problems for many.
To sum it - I don't think this is the last we have seen of them. More fines and license cancellations (or threats thereof) are imminent.