Border Bank Branches Closing Over Dirty Money Concerns

Concerns over human and drug trafficking have lead some big banks to make an extreme move in an attempt to avoid illegal money that is flowing over the border (or, more accurately, crawling under the border in dozens of long underground tunnels) and ending up at small bank branches disguised at legitimate funds from legal business. Those illegal deposits have added up to billions in fines for big banks in recent years as the status of everything from mortgage securities to foreign-exchange trading has fallen into question. Updated regulation in November from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has put even greater pressure on banks to level up their anti-money laundering efforts and invest most heavily in compliance systems aimed at heading potential illegal activity off at the pass. However, residents in border communities like Nogales, Arizona have noted that the crackdown is leading banks to simply close branches rather than risk illegal funds entering them – which in turn is hampering the local economy...more