The Banks of the United States and the War Against Money Laundering

Section 319 of the US Patriot act gives the government greater ability in tracking and investigating cases of money laundering.  This gives the authority to the United States Secretary of the Treasury and to the Attorney General, to seize any funds deemed illicit, those of entities or companies in foreign regions and those of individuals that are under suspicion and/or investigation.  The two officers are also give the authority to issue subpoena or summons to any foreign financial institutions that are currently maintaining accounts held in the United States.

They are able to request that the records of those institutions be handed over, even those held outside of the United States, records that refer to deposits made into foreign and domestic bank accounts.  In the United States, financial institutions are required by law to keep accurate records, and to be ready to turn them over to the anti-money laundering agencies if they be required to do so.  These records are also carefully scrutinized for evidence that the identity of any customer is not to be obscured.

All transactions, and the identity of those making those transactions, must be above board, all records must have the element of transparency.  This just means that they want to ensure that the total truth is being recorded and reported.  In order to comply, banks and financial institutions must complete thorough and complete back ground checks on every customer that they do business with.  These minimum procedures and standards are to again, ensure the identity of all business associates.

For an institution not to comply, they risk the consequence of they themselves being investigated and prosecuted as well, should evidence of corruption and money laundering be suspected or discovered.  The government has gained this added authority, as the repercussions of not knowing your customer has been devastating on banks of the US in the years following September 11, 2009…but so far, due to the added diligence many money launderers and those with the intentions of funding terrorist activities have been caught before they could do any further damage.