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Senate Committees Begin Review Of Virtual Currency Regulation
This week, two Senate Committees—Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs—held hearings to hear from regulators and other stakeholders about how virtual currencies fit within the existing regulatory framework, and to assess whether there is a need to alter that framework in response to potential risks presented by emerging virtual currency technologies. The hearings followed an inquiry initiated by Senate Homeland Security leaders over the summer. Senators who participated in the hearings did not indicate any desire to move quickly to establish new federal regulations to address potential risks presented by innovation in virtual currencies. Rather, the lawmakers generally expressed a desire not to inhibit continued innovation, while supporting market participants who want to play by the rules and protecting the market from those who do not. In both hearings, FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery described her agency’s ability to address the BSA/AML and terrorism financing risks presented by virtual currencies by employing FinCEN’s existing statutory authority and regulatory tools. Similarly, during the Senate Banking hearing, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors expressed confidence in the ability of state regulators to address consumer protection and other risks posed by virtual currencies through the existing state regulatory framework and processes. Still, committee members raised broader questions about the how to define or categorize virtual currencies (e.g. as a currency versus as a security) and the impact of such a classification on a range of other issues including monetary policy and tax administration. The breadth of the issues, which may need to be addressed by a range of government actors, formed the basis of Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper’s (D-DE) call for a “whole government” approach to virtual currency.
New York Banking Regulator Plans Virtual Currency Hearing, Considers Licensing Requirements
On November 14, New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky issued a notice that the DFS intends to hold a public hearing on virtual currency regulation in New York City “in the coming months.” The hearing will focus on the interconnection between money transmission regulations and virtual currencies. Additionally, the hearing is expected to consider the need for and feasibility of a licensing regime specific to virtual currency transactions and activities (i.e. a “BitLicense”), which would include anti-money laundering and consumer protection requirements for licensed entities. The notice makes clear that no decisions on licensing or other regulation of virtual currencies has been made. Rather the hearing and license notice is part of the agency’s broader inquiry launched in August into the need for a regulatory framework specific to virtual currencies. With regard to potential licensing, the DFS would like stakeholders to consider: (i) what, if any, specific types of virtual currency transactions and activities should require a BitLicense; (ii) whether entities that are issued a BitLicense should be required to follow specifically tailored anti-money laundering or consumer protection guidelines; and (iii) whether entities that are issued a BitLicense should be required to follow specifically tailored regulatory examination requirements.
Check Cashing Company, Executives Plead Guilty To AML Charges
On November 5, the DOJ announced that a New York check cashing company and its owner pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in connection with more than $19 million in check-cashing transactions by willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. The plea agreement requires the company to forfeit over $3 million and the owner to pay nearly $1 million in restitution for related tax violations; neither party has yet been sentenced. The DOJ alleges that over a two-year period the company cashed checks written on accounts of shell corporations. The shell corporations and the corresponding bank accounts on which the checks were written were established in the names of foreign nationals, many of whom were no longer in the United States. The check cashing company and its owner allegedly failed to obtain any identification documents or information from the individuals presenting the checks, filed false currency transaction reports (CTRs) that stated the checks were cashed by the foreign nationals who set up the shell corporations, and in certain CTRs, failed to indicate the full amount of cash provided to the individuals. Related charges remain pending against additional defendants. These cases are being prosecuted by, among others, the DOJ’s Money Laundering and Bank Integrity Unit, which investigates and prosecutes complex, multi-district and international criminal cases involving financial institutions and individuals who violate the money laundering statutes, the Bank Secrecy Act and other related statutes.
Federal Reserve Board Announces BSA/AML Enforcement Action Involving International Remittances
On October 31, the Federal Reserve Board released a BSA/AML enforcement action against a Pakistani bank and its New York branch. The Written Agreement addresses examiners’ findings of alleged compliance and risk management deficiencies in the branch’s international remittance services. The agreement requires the bank and branch to, among other things, (i) retain an independent consultant to conduct a compliance review, and (ii) implement enhanced BSA/AML compliance and SAR programs. The agreement also requires interim transaction monitoring procedures and a third-party review of the branch’s international remittance transaction activity over a six-month period.
Federal Reserve Board Announces BSA/AML Compliance Action
On October 17, the Federal Reserve Board released a cease and desist order against a foreign bank and its New York branch over alleged BSA/AML compliance failures. After entering into a Written Agreement in June 2012 that required the branch to improve compliance with BSA/AML in connection with the branch’s bulk cash transactions business line, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York conducted an examination to assess the effectiveness of the branch’s BSA/AML compliance program in other business lines. This examination identified an alleged failure of the branch to maintain an adequate risk-based compliance program to mitigate the BSA/AML risks associated with the branch’s foreign correspondent accounts. The order requires the bank and the branch to (i) retain an independent consultant to assess, and prepare a compliance report on, the branch’s compliance with the BSA/AML requirements, (ii) submit an enhanced BSA/AML compliance program, (iii) submit an enhanced customer due diligence program and an enhanced suspicious activity reporting program, and (iv) retain an independent consultant to conduct a suspicious activity review of U.S. dollar transactions cleared over a six month period in 2012. In addition, the bank’s board and the branch management must jointly submit a written management oversight plan.
Federal Authorities Announce Two BSA/AML Enforcement Actions
This week, federal authorities announced the assessment of civil money penalties against two financial institutions for alleged Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) compliance failures. In the first action, FinCEN and the OCC alleged that a national bank failed to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) from April 2008 to September 2009 for activity in accounts belonging to a law firm through which one of the firm’s principals ran a Ponzi scheme. The agencies claim that the bank willfully violated the BSA’s reporting requirements by failing to detect and adequately report suspicious activities in a timely manner, even when the bank’s anti-money laundering surveillance software identified the suspicious activity (the bank subsequently filed five late SARs related to this conduct in 2011). FinCEN and the OCC assessed concurrent $37.5 million penalties. The FinCEN penalty is the first assessed by that agency’s recently created Enforcement Division. In addition, the SEC charged the bank and a former executive with related securities violations and ordered the bank to pay an additional $15 million penalty and to cease and desist from the alleged activity, including providing misleading information to investors as to amounts of money in particular accounts and actions the bank had taken to limit fraudulent activity.
In a second action, coordinated among FinCEN, the OCC, and the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, federal authorities assessed $8.2 million in total penalties against a now defunct community bank for compliance failures related to Mexican and Dominican Republic money exchange houses. The government alleged that the bank willfully violated the BSA by (i) failing to implement an effective AML program reasonably designed to manage risks of money laundering and other illicit activity, (ii) failing to conduct adequate due diligence on foreign correspondent accounts, and (iii) failing to detect and adequately report suspicious activities in a timely manner. FinCEN and the OCC assessed concurrent $4.1 million penalties, and the DOJ will collect an additional $4.1 million through civil asset forfeiture.
FinCEN Provides Guidance Regarding Updated FATF Jurisdictions List
On September 17, FinCEN issued Advisory FIN-2013-A006, which provides considerations for financial institutions when reviewing their obligations and risk-based approaches with respect to certain jurisdictions. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently updated its lists of jurisdictions that appear in two documents: (i) jurisdictions that are subject to the FATF’s call for countermeasures or are subject to Enhanced Due Diligence due to their Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies and (ii) jurisdictions identified by the FATF to have AML/CFT deficiencies. The Advisory summarizes the changes made by the FATF, provides specific guidance regarding jurisdictions listed in each category, and reiterates general guidance that if a financial institution knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that a transaction involves funds derived from illegal activity or that a customer has otherwise engaged in activities indicative of money laundering, terrorist financing, or other violation of federal law or regulation, the financial institution must file a Suspicious Activity Report.
FinCEN Introduces New Form for Authorizing FBAR Filing by Spouses and Third Parties
On July 29, FinCEN released a new form for filers who submit Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) jointly with spouses, or who wish to submit them via third-party preparers. Filers interested in using the form would obtain it from FinCEN or the IRS, and filers and account owners would maintain the form but would not submit it to FinCEN. FinCEN also announced (i) technical adjustments to ease FBAR filing and allow for enhancements such as introducing new space on the form for filers to provide reasons for late filing as well as the addition of third party preparer information, and (ii) the availability of batch filing capability for testing. FinCEN anticipates the revised electronic FBAR and batch capability will be available for general use by September 30, 2013.
New York Federal Court Holds Courts Possess Power to Accept or Reject DPA
On July 1, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York held that it has the power to accept or reject a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), and to retain supervisory power over the implementation of a DPA. U.S. v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A., No. 12-00763, 2013 WL 3306161 (E.D.N.Y. Jul, 1, 2013). In 2012, a major international bank holding company announced agreements with U.S. law enforcement authorities and federal bank regulators to end investigations into alleged inadequate compliance with anti-money laundering and sanctions laws by the holding company and its U.S. subsidiaries. As part of the resolution, the companies entered into a DPA, which the parties filed with the court and asked the court hold the case in abeyance to exclude part of the DPA from the federal Speedy Trial Act. In reviewing the request for abeyance, the court held that it has broader supervisory power to approve or reject the agreement in its entirety and that such power extends to implementation of the agreement. The court approved the DPA, but retained authority to monitor its execution and implementation. The court explained that “by placing a criminal matter on the docket of a federal court, the parties have subjected their DPA to the legitimate exercise of that court's authority.” Under its supervisory powers holding, which the court characterized as “novel,” the court could later move to modify the agreement. More broadly, the court’s assessment of its supervisory power potentially calls into question the certainty and finality of DPAs, which could impact the use of that prosecutorial tool.
FinCEN Announces Functional Reorganization
On June 24, FinCEN announced its new organizational structure, effective immediately. The new structure organizes employees based on their job function, whereas previously employees were organized based on the stakeholder that they served. FinCEN believes the change will maximize its ability to efficiently further its anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing efforts.