WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP FROM AMERICAN BANKS N THE CORRESPONDENT BANKING PROBLEM?

What on earth is going on in the boardrooms of America's banks that offer correspondent services to the Caribbean? There is definitely a lack of leadership at the top; I am certain that all those banks' compliance directors have repeatedly briefed them on the dire situation. The NSR Media case alone, showing that billions of dollars of Citizenship by Investment payments has been effectively laundered through their accounts, and ended up on China, our major National Security threat, ought to frighten everyone into action. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Our article today shows still more illegal payments, now coming through Grenada's CIP program, and we haven't even touched on what is is understood to be a similar situation in Dominica and Antigua. Who watching the store in New York and North Carolina? Apparently nobody with an awareness of the long-term consequences.

The enormity of the US banks' potential exposure, both to civil fines and penalties, as well as criminal charges, cannot be ignored any longer, I assure you that neither the American law enforcement community nor the Department of Justice is going to let what I can only conclude is massive Willful Blindness go unpunished. In fact, the problem with our banks going along with CBI money laundering might be a major part of FinCEN's new proposed regulation requiring continual risk assessment monitoring. Hasn't anyone in the compliance industry wondered what prompted our regulators to add it to the already significant responsibilities of bank compliance officers? it's because something is failing.

While the abrupt termination of correspondent accounts of Caribbean banks would seriously damage the economies of the East Caribbean, some significant blocking of the major offshore sources of the violations in those accounts is something which would reduce onshore risk. Why this is not happening, and in a very public way, to deter further criminal activities, I cannot understand. If our banks will not do this, then they can expect very large civil fines & penalties, if not something worse. Clean up these problems before they become front-page negative news.