Building Your Compliance Toolbox: Latest Updates for Financial Institutions & Their Role in Countering WMD Proliferation Financing

As virtual currencies and online banking have taken off in the 21st century, so have the opportunities for sanctioned actors to launder money through virtual heists and obscuring their identity online. Organizations such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) continually release new guidance on how to comply with sanctions and prevent proliferation financing to address these growing concerns of how sanctioned actors are using increasingly sophisticated methods to evade international sanctions and fund WMD programs. Financial institutions must uphold compliance and due diligence measures to stop proliferation finance activities but also to avoid paying millions of dollars in penalties for knowingly or unknowingly violating U.S. sanctions. Highlighting recent updates from three U.S. regulatory bodies, this white paper walks through resources available for financial institutions to deploy in their sanctions compliance toolbox.