The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) includes in the broad category of money services businesses (MSB’s) currency dealers/exchangers (and now digital currency exchangers), check cashers, issuers or redeemers of traveler’s checks and money orders, prepaid cards, money transmitters, and the U.S. Postal Service. With the increased utilization of MSB’s by many people in the … Continue reading »
Monthly Archives: February 2014
Embracing FATCA: Developing Best Practices and Innovative Technologies by Anna J. Rasmussen
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) aims to target and tax non-compliant U.S. taxpayers holding certain foreign financial accounts and offshore assets. On Thursday, February 6, 2014 at the Association of Certified Financial Crimes Specialists Conference, held in New York City, experts Kelvin Dickenson, Ron King, Allen Love, and Ed Sander came together to … Continue reading »
Making “Big Data” Your Ally by Will Heilbut
This panel focused on the challenges and advantages that the trend known as Big Data poses to compliance efforts in the financial industry. The first point of order is to demystify the term before talking about how to exploit it for the prevention of financial crime. Big Data refers to the mass amounts of raw … Continue reading »
A Bit on Bitcoins by Chris Puder
The ACFCS International Financial Crimes Conference and Exhibition this past week focused on an array of issues related to Bitcoins and other digital currencies that are presenting serious challenges for financial crime enforcers. As ACFCS notes on its website, digital currencies have plenty of legitimate uses. However, there are a number of features that make … Continue reading »
Bitcoin: Where does it come from?
Updated May 27, 2014 Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency that its founders released in 2008, but because of its young lifespan, the virtual currency is extremely volatile. Sometimes valued at 200 USD and other times at 400 USD, how could the everyday consumer get a Bitcoin without spending three or more digits? Mining. Mining? Yes, … Continue reading »