Encyclopedia

The 1970 Bank Secrecy Act was the first major piece of AML legislation enacted in the United States. It aimed to thwart organized crime by requiring banks to report cash deposits of more than $10,000, identify those individuals conducting large transactions, and maintain thorough records.

The 6th Money Laundering Directive came into effect in the European Union in late 2020 and aims to empower financial institutions and governments to do more in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing by toughening criminal penalties across the region.

Anti-money laundering refers to any effort that seeks to make it harder for criminal networks to disguise illicit funds as legitimate profits.

Brand protection is the process of protecting a brand’s intellectual property from infringement like counterfeiting, copyright piracy, patent violations, and more.

The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act of 2022 (CHIPS and Science Act) was enacted to increase semiconductor manufacturing and development in the US.

The “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (CAATSA) became law on August 2, 2017. It created a rebuttable presumption that significant goods, wares, merchandise, and articles mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by North Korean nationals or North Korean citizens anywhere in the world are made with forced labor and prohibited from importation under the Tariff Act of 1930.

Aimed at deterring the flow of illicit funds into the American financial system and preventing the proliferation of shell corporations, the Corporate Transparency Act, passed in 2021, called for the creation of a beneficial ownership registry within the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

A Cybercrime is any criminal activity that involves a computer, networked device or a network, generally with the intent of financial gain.

Export controls are policies issued by governments to protect national security interests and promote foreign policy objectives. Export control legislation regulates the export of goods, software, and technology that could potentially be useful for purposes that are contrary to the interest of the exporting country.

The Grey List is a list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force. These jurisdictions have also committed to addressing the deficiencies in their anti-money laundering processes.

The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 with the mission to standardize AML efforts internationally.

Forced labor occurs when individuals are compelled against their will to provide work or service through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. Forced labor has become an area of focus with the enactment of the UFLPA in June 2022.

The United Nations created a Universal Declaration of Human Rights that outlines the 30 fundamental human rights that should be universally protected. Any person or country that does not respect the rights in the declaration is committing a human rights violation.

Import Controls are policies issued by governments to prevent the importation of goods that are potentially harmful to the safety of their citizens or the national economy.

Know Your Customer, or KYC, is the critical first step in the fight against financial crime and money laundering. KYC is part of the onboarding process for financial institutions and comprises customer identification and collecting information on a client’s financial dealings.

List screening is the process of vetting entities against various watchlists to identify and prevent financial crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, or other illicit activities.

Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities by disguising it as funds coming from a legitimate source.

Sanctions compliance is how businesses meet regulations that prohibit them from transacting with any sanctioned individuals or entities.

Strategic competition refers to the deepening rivalry between the United States and a number of countries with conflicting interests, and the country’s efforts to innovate new tools of economic security and lawfare to maintain strategic advantage.

Terrorist financing refers to the concealment, or laundering, of money designated to known terrorist groups or to fund terrorist actions of any kind.

Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) is the process of analyzing and minimizing risks associated with outsourcing to third-party vendors or service providers.

Trade based money laundering (TBML) is a form of money laundering where criminals undergo the process of disguising the proceeds of crime by moving money using trade transactions to legitimize their illicit origins.

Trade compliance is an aspect of corporate compliance which requires that organizations ensure that any import or export is in compliance with the laws of all countries involved.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) aims to ensure that no product made wholly or in part in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region gets imported into the U.S., due to the widespread use of forced labor and human rights violations against the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the region.

Ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) refers to the natural person who ultimately owns or controls a company, or the ultimate beneficiary when an institution initiates a transaction.