CHAPTER 9THE US REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
This chapter provides an overview of the USA regulatory framework. Additional information on the specific rules applied in the USA is included in the USA country profile in Chapter 27 of this book (Section 27.36). This chapter provides more detailed information about the current American AML regulations.
9.1 THE US PATRIOT ACT
The 342-page US Patriot Act forms the current cornerstone of US anti-money-laundering legislation. Passed in 2001, the actual title of the legislation is:
“Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001.”
As you will notice from the title, the Patriot Act is not actually an “all crimes” piece of legislation and restricts itself to detecting and preventing terrorist financing only. Perhaps, given the date that this legislation was passed by the House of Representatives (24th October, 2001) and signed by the then President George W. Bush (26th October, 2001), this is not surprising.
This Act adds to the existing US legislation on anti-money-laundering by extending the Bank Secrecy Act across the entire financial services industry. However, different institutions will find that the Act impacts them in different ways, since there are additional criteria that relate to the size and complexity of an institution and the nature of their operations.
9.2 THE OTHER KEY US REGULATIONS
US banks were already subject to money-laundering ...
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