| The USA
PATRIOT Act, signed by President Bush in 2001, is designed to detect,
deter, and punish terrorists in the United States and abroad. The Act
imposes new anti-money laundering requirements on brokerage firms and
financial institutions. All brokerage firms are required to have
comprehensive anti-money laundering programs.
To help
you understand these efforts, we want to provide you with some
information about money laundering and our steps to implement the USA
PATRIOT Act.
What
is money laundering?
Money
laundering is the process of disguising illegally obtained money so
that the funds appear to come from legitimate sources or activities.
Money laundering occurs in connection with a wide variety of crimes,
including illegal arms sales, drug trafficking, robbery, fraud,
racketeering, and terrorism
How
big is the problem and why is it important?
The use
of the U.S. financial system by criminals to facilitate terrorism or
other crimes could well taint our financial markets. According to the
U.S. State Department, one recent estimate puts the amount of
worldwide money laundering activity at $1 trillion a year.
What
are we required to do to eliminate money laundering?
Under
new rules required by the USA PATRIOT Act, our anti-money laundering
program must designate a special compliance officer, set up employee
training, conduct independent audits, and establish policies and
procedures to detect and report suspicious transactions and ensure
compliance with the new laws.
As part
of our required program, we will ask you to provide various
identification documents or other information. Federal law requires
all financial institutions to obtain, verify and record information
that identifies each person who opens an account. When you open an
account, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth and other
information that will allow us to identify you. Until you provide the
information or documents we need, we may not be able to open an
account or effect any transactions for you |
