A New and Better AML Regime?

On February 16, 2017, The Clearing House (a banking association and payments company that is owned by twenty-five of the largest commercial banks) released a report entitled A New Paradigm: Redesigning the U.S. AML/CFT Framework to Protect National Security and Aid Law Enforcement. The report analyzes the current effectiveness of the U.S. anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regime, identifies fundamental problems, and proposes a series of reforms to address them. The report, in summary, reveals the long-standing frustration of both the financial services industry and law enforcement with the current regime’s ineffectiveness.

The report advocates a complete overhaul of the existing regulatory and supervisory regime. This article gives an overview of the seven reforms identified by the report for immediate action.