By, Cody Roberts
Every once in a while, a regulation is actually helpful. While Regulation Z would not fall into this category, the Bank Secrecy Act and its implementing regulations do.
A very recent example was shown in the wake of the recent Paris attacks. Evidently, Suspicious Activity Reports are being scrutinized to find connections to suspects in the attacks.
The article by Reuters at the link below further elaborates how the Bank Secrecy Act database has been extremely useful in understanding just who was behind this attack.
In summary, banks are playing a critical role in identifying suspects in the recent Paris attacks by thoroughly reviewing transactions for any potential leads, which has lead them to find an expanding number of alerts pointing to the Islamic State militant group, ISIS.
Compliance officers were even told by the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Terrorist Financing Operations Section that they are providing some of the best information the FBI currently has on the group.
While nothing can take away the tragedy experienced in France, we are thankful to see our industry making a substantial impact in this investigation.
