ABSTRACT
The United States (US) financial institution must maintain additional records for any correspondent bank account it holds for a foreign financial institution. The US Patriot Act contains many more provisions and enforces more demands on US financial institutions and, directly or indirectly, on foreign financial institutions if they wish to do business in or through the USA, despite the requirements of their local law. The USA, in common with many other countries, has had anti-money laundering legislation in place for a number of years. Indeed, the USA was the first country to designate money laundering as a criminal offence. One of the major areas of potential conflict in the Money Laundering Control Act was whether laundering money through a foreign bank was an offence. This was not clarified until 2001 on the passing of the US Patriot act.
