Insurers can use technology to stop money laundering. (Technology Notes).Breaking up an $80 million money-laundering ring involving international life insurance shouldn't be seen as a sign of a systemic problem within the industry, said a spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) is a Washington-based lobbying and trade group for the life insurance industry. ACLI represents 373 insurance companies that account for 93 percent of the U.S. life insurance industry's total assets. . How much of an effect the federal USA PATRIOT Act USA PATRIOT Act [Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorists], 2001, U.S. would have had on stopping this scheme isn't clear, and while the act only applies to life and annuity writers, creative property/casualty insurers should be joining life insurers in deploying information technology to catch or prevent possible money laundering, experts said. In the $80 million case, Colombian drug-trafficking organizations were buying investment-grade life insurance policies in the United States, the Isle of Man Noun 1. Isle of Man - one of the British Isles in the Irish Sea Man British Isles - Great Britain and Ireland and adjacent islands in the north Atlantic , and other locations, with cartel associates as the beneficiaries. Carl Wilkerson, chief counsel for securities and litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. with the ACLI ACLI American Council of Life Insurers ACLI Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani (Italy) ACLI American Council of Life Insurance ACLI Ada Command Language Interpretation said any U.S. company subject to the PATRIOT Act would have to have a risk-based approach in its anti-money-laundering compliance program. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Noun 1. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network - a law enforcement agency of the Treasury Department responsible for establishing and implementing policies to detect money laundering FinCEN also issued proposed rules that require life insurers to file reports of any suspicious activities such as money laundering to the federal government. "It's certainly a large-dollar incident that merits attention," Wilkerson said. "It shouldn't be over-read to suggest there is a systemic deficiency in the life insurance industry. The industry response and Treasury regulations would filter out these types of organized money-laundering activities." The Treasury Department has already recognized the importance of applying anti-money-laundering controls to the life insurance industry and, as part of the PATRIOT Act, issued proposed rules that for the first time require some insurance companies to establish anti-money-laundering programs. President Bush signed the PATRIOT Act into law in October 2001 to hinder the finances of terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks. |
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