MADISON—The World Council of Credit Unions has sent a comment letter to the Financial Action Task Force on correspondent banking anti-money laundering (AML) rules.
In the letter, signed by Michael Edwards, VP and general counsel, WOCCU shares support for much of the guidance and outlines possible adjustments, and passes along information to help the FATF better understand credit unions.
Key points made by WOCCU:
- WOCCU supports the FATF’s clarification that a correspondent institution is not responsible for due diligence on its customers’ customers.
- WOCCU urges the FATF to use the terms “correspondent financial institution” and “respondent financial institution” instead of “correspondent bank” or “respondent bank” because credit unions engage in correspondent banking activities but are not called “banks.”
- WOCCU urges the FATF to have this guidance apply to domestic wire transfers, as well as international ones.
- WOCCU urges the FATF to state that credit union’s AML/CFT compliance programs be “proportional” to its AML/CFT risks in order to help limit regulatory burdens on CUs.
- WOCCU provides detailed information on the relationships between corporate credit unions and natural person credit unions to help the FATF understand the credit union system.
A complete copy of the comment letter can be found in CUToday.info’s The gov here.