Summary: Members of Congress have raised concern that high profile money laundering cases have generally involved the use of offshore accounts or transactions to facilitate the movement of illicit funds through the banking system. Law enforcement and bank regulators have also expressed concern about offshore private banking activities and their potential to be the private banking "soft spot" for money laundering. This report reviews the regulatory oversight of offshore private banking activities, focusing on the following areas: (1) regulatory oversight procedures to ensure that offshore private banking activities are covered by banks' anti-money-laundering efforts, (2) deficiencies cited by banking regulators regarding offshore private banking activities and corrective actions that banks have taken, (3) barriers hindering regulatory oversight of offshore private banking activities and efforts to overcome them, and (4) the views of the banking industry on regulatory access to documentation pertaining to offshore private banking activities.
