In an article titled 'Mobile Payments--A Growing Threat', the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US Department of State discusses mobile payments and worries about them saying that 'there are already indications that money launderers and those that finance terrorism will avail themselves of the new m-payment systems.' The article concludes by saying that 'much work and creative thinking will be required to maintain the advantages NPMs ('new payment methods'), including m-payments offer, while at the same time preventing exploitation and misuse by money launderers and terrorist financiers and simultaneously protecting user privacy and the integrity of the global financial systems.'

A new survey by KPMG International reports that bank executives say spending to combat money-laundering activities rose by 71 percent in North America over the past three years, mainly to pay for IT systems and training staff.

The U.S. Departments of Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security have joined together to issue the "2007 National Money Laundering Strategy, a report detailing continued efforts to dismantle money laundering and terrorist financing networks and bring these criminals to justice."

The US Department of Justice has announced that a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. has indicted two companies operating a digital currency business and their owners on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Glenbrook's Bryan Derman files the following report he prepared following his participation last week on a panel titled "Hype or Reality – Anti-Money Laundering Risks from Prepaid Payment Products and What Can Be Done About Them" at the Spring Meeting of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section in Washington, DC.

Mercator Advisory Group has announced an update on anti-money laundering (AML) activity titled "Moving Toward The 'Total Mix'." According to Mercator, this report examines the growing FI-wide approach to AML as well as trends in compliance enforcement, suspicious activity reporting for 2006 and AML vendor consolidation. The report focuses in particular on the markets for and vendors of AML technologies addressing the small and
mid-market banking segments.

Celent has announced it has updated its 2003 report on anti-money laundering solution vendors in a new report titled "Evaluating the Vendors of Anti-Money Laundering Solutions 2006". According to Celent, "the report profiles and evaluates 19 established and emerging vendors of anti-money laundering software, including BI-heavy transaction analysis software and filtering solutions for screening government watchlists such as OFAC."

Fortent, a company created specifically to deliver a comprehensive suite of risk and compliance solutions to financial institutions worldwide, was launched today. Fortent combines Searchspace, a leading anti-money laundering solution, and Semagix, a pioneering Know Your Customer and Enhanced Due Diligence product, into a single brand.

A great friend of Glenbrook's is Broox Peterson, formerly Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Visa for over 20 years. Broox retired from Visa a couple of years ago and since then has been doing free lance legal work with information technology and payments companies.

Broox has written a great article about some of the implications that entrepreneurs may want to consider regarding the regulatory implications of building a new payments company - something that, in our experience, entrepreneurs may not fully understand or appreciate.

Click here to continue reading Broox's insights into this important topic.