这是今年1月美国对反洗钱法进行重大修订后,财政部金融犯罪执法局(Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,简称FinCEN)制定的第一份清单。根据国会通过的法案,金融犯罪执法局须制定一项打击洗钱和恐怖融资的国家战略,并每四年发布一份优先事项清单。(Legislation passed by Congress required FinCEN to develop a national strategy for countering money laundering and terrorism financing and to issue a list of priorities every four years.)
Bank Policy Institute高级副总裁Angelena Bradfield说:“在制定相应规则、把优先事项落实为反洗钱计划方面,还有很多工作要做,但我们期待与金融犯罪执法局合作,并认为公布优先事项清单是令人鼓舞的第一步。”
但在FinCEN公布的清单中,几乎所有跨国犯罪领域都被提及,这让一些合规专家担心,新程序可能只会增加该行业的整体监管负担。除了腐败和网络犯罪,该清单还列出了国内外恐怖主义、毒品和人口贩卖,以及各种欺诈和有组织犯罪。(In addition to corruption and cybercrime, the list also names domestic and international terrorism, drug and human trafficking, and a wide range of frauds and organized crimes.)
FinCEN前官员、White & Case律师事务所律师杰里米•库斯特(Jeremy Kuester)表示:“优先级是做这件事的方式,但这些内容不是优先级,它们只是一般的话题。” ("Prioritization is the way to do it, but these aren’t priorities, they are just general topics.")
财政部表示,将在稍后发布监管规定,阐明金融机构应如何将已确定的优先事项纳入合规计划。反洗钱法给了FinCEN 180天的时间来公布这些规定的优先次序。(The Treasury unit said it would issue regulations later clarifying how financial institutions should incorporate the priorities it had identified into their compliance programs. The anti-money-laundering act gives FinCEN 180 days after publishing the priorities to issue the regulations.)
行业专家表示,在决定是否提交可疑交易报告时,金融机构通常会考虑一笔信息不准确、不完整或过时的交易,或者评估这笔交易是否不同寻常,完全是出于另一个原因。他们很少能够将交易与FinCEN列出的优先事项之一联系起来。“十有八九,你根本不知道,大家所有的时间、资源和金钱都花在了确定它是否是这些优先事项上。” (“Nine out of 10 times, you never even know.All the time, resources and money are spent getting to a determination of whether it is one of these priorities.”)