Pubdate: Mon, 05 Feb 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
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Author: Riva D. Atlas

REPORT SAYS MONEY LAUNDERERS EXPLOIT BANKS

A report to be formally released today by Democrats on the staff of a 
Senate investigating panel says that money launderers have exploited 
the international system by which banks handle accounts for one 
another's customers, according to a copy provided in advance. The 
investigation was led by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking 
Democrat on the Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations.

In filtering profits from illegal activities through banks to 
disguise their origin, money launderers take advantage of banks' 
willingness to arrange what are known as correspondent accounts for 
customers of other banks with no local presence.

"Correspondent accounts in U.S. banks give the owners and clients of 
poorly regulated, poorly managed, sometimes corrupt, foreign banks 
with weak or no antimoney laundering controls direct access to the 
U.S. financial system and the freedom to move money within the United 
States and around the world," the report said.

Correspondent banking is a huge business: in the United States, as of 
mid-1999, the top 75 banking companies in the correspondent business 
held $35 billion in such accounts, according to the report. Large 
correspondent banks manage 2,000 to 3,000 such accounts and process 
billions of dollars in wire transfers daily, the report noted. "Yet, 
until very recently, most U.S. banks did not invest in the software, 
personnel or training needed to identify and manage money-laundering 
risks in correspondent banking," it said.

Money launderers are involved in drug trafficking, tax evasion, 
financial frauds and Internet gambling. Perhaps $500 billion to $1 
trillion in criminal proceeds are sent through banks worldwide 
annually, with about half that amount transferred through United 
States banks, according to an earlier report by the subcommittee's 
Democratic staff.

When United States banks were confronted with cases where their 
correspondent clients had used their systems to launder money, "In 
most cases they closed those accounts as soon as we told them the 
facts," Senator Levin said in an interview yesterday.

Among the report's recommendations is that banks be barred from 
offering correspondent services to foreign banks "that are shell 
operations with no physical presence in any country." The report also 
urges banks to step up their scrutiny. And it seeks new laws to make 
it easier for law-enforcement officials to seize laundered money from 
foreign banks' correspondent accounts in United States banks.

The banking industry is likely to resist any new legislation 
regulating correspondent banking or money laundering in general. 
Banks say they have cooperated with efforts to prevent money 
laundering, and want the federal government instead to better 
identify rogue banks, said John Byrne, senior counsel at the American 
Bankers Association.

"There is no logical, rational reason to create new laws to deal with 
this," he said, stressing that he had not seen the report. "If the 
premise is that correspondent banking needs additional vigilance 
going forward, we're not going to dispute that. But this is a two-way 
street. The government has some obligation to give us an inkling 
about which institutions and countries we need to increase our 
vigilance about."

Senator Levin responded yesterday that the banks could still do more. 
"There are current regulations which I believe too often have been 
ignored," he said. "We need to rely on the banks to do their share of 
the work to stop money laundering abuses that exist, and the 
government has the responsibility to enforce regulation as well as 
tighten up the laws."

Senator Levin expects to hold hearings within a month. "I have spoken 
to the Secretary of the Treasury about it and he is interested in the 
subject," he said. A spokesman for the Treasury Secretary, Paul H. 
O'Neill, did not return calls seeking comment.
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