Industry Gets Reprieve On Money Laundering Rules Under Patriot Act

Washington

Insurance agents and companies are praising the U.S. Treasury Department for its decision to take up to six months for additional study of how to apply new anti-money laundering standards to the insurance industry.

“We are very pleased that Treasury is looking at a much tighter, industry-specific approach,” said Julie Gackenbach, director of federal relations for the Des Plaines, Ill.-based National Association of Independent Insurers.

Moreover, although the Treasury Departments release does not specifically mention insurance agents, agents also have a six-month exemption.

Robert Rusbuldt, chief executive officer of the Alexandria, Va.-based Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, said his group has talked to Treasury officials and had its outside counsel review the departments statement. Agents, he said, are not included among those who must immediately comply with the anti-money laundering rules.

Ms. Gackenbach noted that insurers were concerned about a “one-size-fits-all” approach to money laundering rules. Different financial institutions, she said, face different risks of being used for money laundering. She said NAII will continue to work with Treasury.

The issue involves the USA Patriot Act, passed last year in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. The legislation directed Treasury to develop regulations on anti-money laundering that would apply to all financial institutions.

Insurance groups said that they were concerned about facing the same standards as banks, since there is little evidence that insurance is used for money laundering purposes.

Treasury announced last week that it would continue studying the application of the anti-money laundering provisions on insurance companies and other industries for up to six months.

Treasury said that it has formed a working group devoted to the insurance industry that will be responsible for drafting regulations tailored to it.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, April 29, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Industry Gets Reprieve On Money-Laundering Rules Under Patriot Act

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