United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-06-29 monographic deposited born digital 36 p. GA 1.13:GGD-98-154 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154 P0b002ee180378b11 f:gg98154 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154 GGD-98-154 Banking law Law enforcement Money laundering Organized crime Financial institutions Federal reserve banks Bank examination Letter Report GGD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed U.S. regulatory oversight of private banking activities involving offshore jurisdictions, focusing on: (1) regulatory oversight procedures to ensure that offshore private banking activities are covered by banks' anti-money-laundering efforts; (2) deficiencies identified by banking regulators regarding offshore private banking activities and corrective actions taken by banks; (3) barriers hindering regulatory oversight of offshore private banking activities and efforts to overcome them; and (4) banking industry views regarding regulatory access to documentation pertaining to offshore private banking activities.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) federal banking regulators may review banks' efforts to prevent or detect money laundering in their offshore private banking activities during compliance or Bank Secrecy Act examinations; safety and soundness examinations; or during targeted examinations of their private banking activities; (2) to guard against offshore entities that maintain U.S. private banking accounts from being used for money laundering or other illicit purposes, examiners are to look for "know your customer" procedures that enable banks to identify and profile the beneficial owners of private banking accounts; (3) GAO's review of bank examination reports prepared under the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's (FRBNY) private banking initiative showed that the most common deficiency relating to offshore private banking was a lack of documentation on the beneficial owners of private investment companies (PIC) and other offshore entities that maintain U.S. accounts; (4) FRBNY and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency examiners noted other deficiencies during their respective examinations; (5) the bank examinations GAO reviewed, along with discussions with examiners and bank officials, indicated that most banks had started to take corrective actions to address deficiencies related to offshore private banking activities, but improvements were needed; (6) the nine offshore jurisdictions GAO identified for review have secrecy laws that protect the privacy of individual account owners, and five of them impose criminal sanctions for breaches of privacy; (7) moreover, federal banking regulators' attempts to work around restrictions associated with these secrecy laws are sometimes hampered; (8) GAO also found that all nine offshore jurisdictions selected for review were engaged in some type of anti-money-laundering activities; (9) although the efforts of individual jurisdictions may contribute to the international fight against money laundering, it is too early to ascertain their impact on money laundering or the extent to which the offshore jurisdictions' secrecy laws will continue to represent barriers to U.S. and other foreign regulators; (10) GAO surveyed officials from 15 banks that were asked by FRBNY to provide documentation on the beneficial owners of PICs and other offshore entities that maintained U.S. accounts; (11) GAO found that the officials had a number of concerns; and (12) in spite of these concerns, most officials indicated that their banks changed how they maintain documentation on offshore private banking activities in response to FRBNY's request for beneficial owner documentation. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154/html/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154.pdf GAO/GGD-98-154 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-154 Letter Report GAO/GGD-98-154; Money Laundering: Regulatory Oversight of Offshore Private Banking Activities; Banking law Law enforcement Money laundering Organized crime Financial institutions Federal reserve banks Bank examination