Lawmakers Approve Enablers Act Bill to Expand AML Reporting Requirements

A group of lawmakers have approved the revision of America’s money laundering laws after 20 years. The revision is called the most significant revision that is proposed in the wake of pandora papers.

As proposed in the Pandora papers, the Enablers Act requires the trust of companies, lawyers, art dealers and all associated clients who seek to move finances and assets into the financial system to follow the AML laws.

The bill is called the Enablers Act, which amends the 52-year-old banking secrecy act. According to the new bill, it is required for the first time that trust firms, lawyers, art dealers and all other entities, investigate clients seeking the movement of money and assets into the American financial system. 

Also, it includes the financial advisors of art and antiquities traders, to be in compliance with the law and also be required to report any suspicious activity to the department that controls the treasury. It is also mentioned that real estate transactions do not fall under the bill.

The banking and financial firms are already complied with processing the verification checks of their clients by thoroughly analyzing the wealth and its sources. The House Armed Services Committee voted for the inclusion of the Enablers act in the National Defense Authorization Act.

According to the Democrats, the bill will become a part of the law, representative Tom Malinowski stated: “If it passes, this will be the biggest money-laundering reform since the Patriot Act,”  while referring to the older legislation that was passed in the wake of 9/11, 2001 terrorist attacks, He added: “It closes the biggest remaining loopholes in our laws that allow crooks and kleptocrats all over the world to hide their money and property in the United States.”

The other members of congress added the Enablers Act following the investigation of the Pandora Papers in October. The investigation showed the strategies of global elites to conceal their wealth in the tax heavens that primarily include the US.

In this regard, the senior member of the White House said that while the President’s administration is not a part of the Enablers Act, “we are prioritizing work to address the United States’ own regulatory deficiencies.”

“We applaud the bipartisan push within the Congress to work with the administration to limit the ways in which proceeds of corruption and other ill-gotten gains are moved through the U.S. financial system,” the official said.

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