Reputational Risk

The U.S. Justice Department has sent wide-ranging subpoenas to several of the largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, seeking information about whether they improperly closed customer accounts for political reasons.

UBS Group AG has cut its Asia sustainability office by half in recent months, part of a wider global retreat from dedicated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) operations that has followed the bank’s integration of Credit Suisse.

Switzerland’s financial markets regulator published supplementary guidance on money laundering risk analysis Wednesday, flagging persistent weaknesses in how banks and other financial institutions define risk tolerance and assess inherent risks.

An employee of Banco Santander’s Chile unit was among 18 suspects detained Tuesday as Chilean authorities moved against an alleged $85-million money-laundering network tied to the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua.

Jeffrey Epstein’s office relied on a dedicated team at American Express Co. to book travel for dozens of women, in some cases arranging sham itineraries designed to help them obtain visas.

Epstein’s Centurion relationship manager and more than a dozen American Express colleagues booked, canceled, and rebooked flights for women whose travel patterns and supporting documents two human-trafficking experts say should have raised red flags.

PayPal has agreed to forgo approximately $30 million in transaction fees to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether the financial services company unlawfully favored minority-owned businesses through a funding initiative launched in 2020.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Austria in enhanced follow-up after finding the country’s framework for investigating and prosecuting money laundering remains weak more than a decade after similar concerns were first raised.

The United States Mint has for years purchased gold originating from illegal mines controlled by a Colombian drug cartel, violating a federal law requiring that its coins be made from newly mined American gold.

Nordic banks are finally beginning to move past the Baltic money-laundering scandal that engulfed the region’s financial sector, after nearly a decade of probes, fines, management upheaval, and costly compliance overhauls.

UBS AG is facing renewed pressure from the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee over its handling of an investigation into possible Nazi-linked accounts at Credit Suisse, after the panel’s chairman accused the Swiss bank of withholding documents and obstructing a full review.