TREASURY WARNS FLORIDA COMPLIANCE OFFICERS THAT OBEYING THEIR STATE'S NEW ANTI-ESG LAW COULD HURT THEIR AML/CFT, AND ENDANGER NATIONAL SECURITY

Last year, Florida enacted a law, more commonly described as an anti-ESG measure, meaning it is in opposition to the consideration of Environmental, Social Consciousness, and Corporate Governance factors in banking, thereby limiting the scope of inquiries to strictly pecuniary matters. This means compliance, as well as lending, officers cannot consider non-financial factors regarding clients or prospective clients. To do otherwise, the new law states, constitutes "Unsafe and Unsound Banking Practices." I am sure you know what that means.

If you, as a compliance officer, cannot use non-financial information in onboarding a client, the Department of the Treasury is warning that you may be facilitating money laundering, or worse, even terrorist financing, and Treasury is especially concerned that restricting your inquiries actually "may inhibit National Security efforts."

Does America really need another terrorist attack, which succeeded because a Florida compliance officer was hamstrung in his due diligence, and allowed a terrorist operation to be funded, and to ultimately succeed? Compliance officers, who could end up with administrative, civil or even criminal charges, for obeying an idiotic Florida law, passed for purely political reasons, had better choose to follow Banking Best practices, and ignore this legal obscenity, to protect both themselves and their bank. To do otherwise invites disaster.