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The Morning Risk Report: Treasury Offers Clarity on How Banks Can Share Details on Suspicious Transactions
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Kenneth Blanco, the director of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said the new guidance should encourage information sharing between banks on suspicious transactions.
PHOTO: ALAN DIAZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Good morning. The U.S.’s anti-money-laundering watchdog released new guidance on how financial institutions can share personally identifiable information about their customers if they believe it is tied to a suspicious transaction.
The guidance is meant to help clarify the limits to what officials have called a key tool in identifying potential instances of money laundering and terrorist financing, Kenneth Blanco, the director of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said during a conference Thursday on financial crime enforcement.
[Continued below…]
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Banks in the U.S. were given the legal authority to share certain types of information with each other, regulators and law-enforcement authorities by legislation passed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That law, the 2001 Patriot Act, has encouraged some financial institutions to band together in recent years to more effectively identify suspicious transactions that could be tied to an illicit activity affecting U.S. national security.
Still, questions have lingered in the private sector on the legal limits to such information-sharing partnerships,causing them to be under-utilized, according to practitioners. Mr. Blanco said he hoped the guidance, released in the form of a fact sheet, would put some of the questions on the private sector partnerships to rest and encourage more banks to participate.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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U.S. Sanctions Alleged Human Rights Abusers in Several Countries
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The Trump administration blacklisted dozens of current and former foreign officials accused of political repression through killings, torture, rape and other human rights abuses in Russia, China, Yemen and other nations. The actions by the U.S. Treasury and State Departments—which also included sanctions against current and former officials in El Salvador, Jamaica and Haiti—coincided with the observance of international Human Rights Day.
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Stephanie Avakian helped oversee crackdowns on investment advisers and cryptocurrencies, among other actions, at the SEC.
PHOTO: ZACH GIBSON/GETTY IMAGES
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Stephanie Avakian, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s top enforcement official, will step down this month after four years in the role, a move that allows the incoming Biden administration to put its own stamp on Wall Street policing. She will be succeeded on an acting basis by Marc Berger, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and former head of the SEC’s New York office.
Meanwhile, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Heath Tarbert will step down from his leadership role while remaining a commissioner at the nation’s derivatives regulator, leaving control of the five-person panel in Republican hands, at least for now. A person familiar with Mr. Tarbert’s plans said he would retain his seat until he decides on his next move. His term expires in 2024.
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U.S., EU to Impose Sanctions on Turkey Over Missile System, Energy
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The U.S. and European Union are applying pressure on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Washington planning sanctions over Turkey’s acquisition of a Russian air-defense system and the EU targeting people involved in Ankara’s energy exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean. The EU measure stopped short of adopting broader economic sanctions requested by some of its member countries.
The U.S. is also expected to impose sanctions on Turkish entities, in this case in response to Ankara’s acquisition of the advanced S-400 Russian-made air-defense system, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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China is revoking visa exemptions for U.S. diplomatic passport holders in Hong Kong and Macau and said it would impose unspecified sanctions to retaliate for actions the U.S. took against Chinese officials this week.
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The sanctions would affect U.S. officials and nonprofit personnel who had “expressed vile positions on the Hong Kong question” along with their immediate family members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
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U.K. banks can resume paying dividends next year after regulators ended a ban introduced in March to make lenders conserve capital during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the government’s decision to lend $700 million in coronavirus-relief funds to trucking firm YRC Worldwide Inc., telling a congressional oversight panel Thursday that taxpayers will profit from the loan. Members of the watchdog group monitoring Treasury loan programs have questioned how the firm was able to qualify for government aid despite its precarious financial position before the pandemic.
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The Supreme Court ruled that federal agents can be sued for putting Muslim men on the no-fly list in alleged retaliation for their refusal to cooperate with counterterrorism investigations.
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Federal agents raided one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of ghost-gun parts, a sign that federal law enforcement is cracking down on kits that allow people to make weapons at home.
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The French regulator, the CNIL, said it fined Google $120.8 million for storing advertising-related identifiers on millions of users’ computers before asking consent.
PHOTO: MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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France’s privacy watchdog issued more than $163 million in fines to Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon, saying they improperly collected information about website visitors, taking a hard line as European regulators haggle over such sanctions.
The French regulator said it fined Google €100 million, equivalent to $120.8 million—a record for a privacy fine in France—for allegedly storing advertising-related identifiers on millions of users’ computers before asking for individuals’ consent, and without explaining sufficiently how the identifiers, called cookies, were used. It fined Amazon €35 million for the same violations.
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Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified in Washington in December 2018 amid a backlash against Big Tech.
PHOTO: TING SHEN/ZUMA PRESS
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Facebook’s reputation has taken hit after hit following disclosures of privacy violations, reports of false or harmful content spreading on its services, discontent about its approach to political material and warnings about social media’s impact on everything from childhood development to popular discourse.
While those factors don’t form the legal basis for antitrust lawsuits filed against the company on Wednesday, they have created a climate that makes government action against the company more palatable across the political spectrum. In addition to antitrust scrutiny, large tech companies are lobbying against other threats, including legislative proposals to increase their legal liability for user-generated content.
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Rio Tinto PLC’s destruction of two ancient caves in Australia to expand an iron-ore mine could have ramifications for global commodity markets if local lawmakers intensify scrutiny of mining activities that threaten heritage sites.
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A senior Pfizer executive spoke on Thursday to an FDA panel in Tiskilwa, Ill., that is reviewing the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.
PHOTO: DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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A special Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended broad distribution of the first Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S., clearing the way for the agency to grant emergency authorization for the vaccine, developed by Pfizer Inc. and German partner BioNTech SE.
The action by the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee came as Covid-19 infections continued surging, claiming about 290,000 American lives. The disease is now “essentially out of control,” Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer’s head of vaccine research and development, told the panel. “Vaccine introduction is an urgent need.”
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The Joby Aviation vehicle, with six electric-powered tilt rotors above an egg-shaped body sized for four passengers, is lighter, cheaper and quieter than conventional helicopters.
PHOTO: JOBY AVIATION
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Flying taxis are getting a boost from the U.S. military. The Air Force has issued a first-of-its-kind safety endorsement of an electric-powered vehicle similar to a helicopter, opening the door to using such commercially developed equipment for military missions. The endorsement is meant to lay the groundwork for eventual civilian certification of the technology and even approval of autonomous flights crossing American cities, industry and military officials said.
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The U.S. economic recovery has downshifted, with job growth slowing and layoffs persisting at a high level amid rising coronavirus cases and related restrictions. The number of workers seeking unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, climbed sharply by 137,000 to 853,000 last week, the Labor Department reported.
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