News broke on Sunday of the FinCEN files leak. Leaked documents involving about $2tn of transactions, revealed how some of the world's biggest banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world. Jane Jee, CEO, Kompli-Global, an authority on regulation and regulatory technology to help regulated entities combat fraud and money laundering ommented:
“In the latest scandal to hit the banking sector and severely tarnish the UK’s reputation as an ethical place to do business, leaked documents, involving about $2tn of transactions, have revealed how some of the world's biggest banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released files over the weekend that were mainly Suspicious Activity Reports filed with a U.S. Treasury Department agency known as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN”.
“The FinCEN files reveal that banks have severely come up short through sanctions evading, failing to carry out proper Customer Due Diligence (CDD) aka Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, ignoring publicly available evidence of wrongdoing by clients and failing to block accounts where there was clear suspicious activity. The UK is called a "higher risk jurisdiction" and compared to Cyprus, by the intelligence division of FinCEN. Over 3,000 UK companies are named in the FinCEN files - more than any other country.”
“Therefore now, more than ever, it is time for a step change in how the government, industry and regulators tackle money laundering, especially as the technology is available to prevent these scandals. Regulated entities no longer have an excuse not to take effective action to comply with AML and related legislation. It’s time for the industry to step up and take charge – it’s not just their own profits and reputation they are risking, it’s the safety and stability of the communities around them as well –financial crime wrecks lives.”
