[118241] in Cypherpunks
Know your (foreign) customers...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Wed Sep 22 17:57:26 1999
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Message-Id: <v0421010eb40efb80e4a6@[204.167.100.159]>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 17:34:18 -0400
To: Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>,
cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
--- begin forwarded text
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 16:16:43 -0400
From: Charles Evans <cevans@e-gold.com>
Reply-To: cevans@e-gold.com
To: e-gold list <e-gold-list@free-market.net>
Subject: e-gold: BANKS MAY FACE SWEEPING CHANGES IN FOREIGN DEALINGS
Sender: owner-e-gold-list@free-market.net
Remember:
G&SR is the US-based exchange window, and holds
no value on customers' behalf. DigiGold Ltd.
and e-gold Ltd. are non-US companies.
C.Evans
-------------<cut here>-------------
BANKS MAY FACE SWEEPING CHANGES IN FOREIGN DEALINGS
A bill being introduced on Capitol Hill to combat money
laundering could substantially alter the relationship between
U.S. banks and their foreign clients, observers predict.
Sponsored by Rep. James Leach (R-Iowa), it would prohibit U.S.
financial institutions from providing correspondent banking
services for a whole class of banks that are licensed in off-
shore jurisdictions but have little or no physical presence
there.
o The bill would also require firms to identify the ultimate
owner of any account established in the U.S. by a foreign
entity that isn't publicly traded.
o An important part of the legislation would strengthen
"know your customer" rules for U.S. banks and other
financial institutions handling the accounts of
foreigners.
o The bill would substantially broaden the list of
prosecutable offenses under current money-laundering laws
to include money obtained through bribes or fraud against
a foreign government -- as well as by pilfering foreign-
aid money.
Rep. Leach, who is chairman of the House Banking Committee, said
the legislation would "significantly increase the transparency of
the international banking system and pierce the veil of secrecy
that for too long has made it possible for institutions and
individuals operating in largely unregulated off-shore
jurisdictions to gain unfettered access to the U.S. financial
system for purposes of legitimizing the proceeds of illegal
activities."
Source: Michael Allen, "Money-Laundering Bill Could Affect Banks
Dealing with Foreign Customers," Wall Street Journal, September
21, 1999.
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
