Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Set to Push Ahead with Wire Transfer Database Plan

Via Finextra.com.

The US government is set to force through a proposal that would require the country's top banks to report details of their international wire transfers under initiatives to track money laundering and terrorist funding.

The news comes as US Treasury division Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fincen) delivers a report stating that the reporting of cross-border wire transfer data by financial institutions is "technically feasible" and may be valuable to efforts to "combat money laundering and terrorist financing".

But according to news reports the database scheme would be limited to banks that directly transmit or receive an international wire transfers. Eric Kringel, senior policy adviser at Fincen, told reporters that this would effectively limit the requirement to around a dozen large financial institutions.

Last year the American Bankers' Association (ABA) called for the US government to drop the scheme and claimed the Treasury Department didn't have the resources to administer such a programme adequately.

posted by Fergie @ 1/17/2007 01:49:00 PM