Wolfsberg Group

The Wolfsberg Group is a private association of eleven global banks, founded in 2000 at the Château Wolfsberg, near Ermatingen,(Switzerland). Its goals have been to develop financial industry standards for Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-money laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) policies, similar to what the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering does on a government level.

History

In 1998 Peter Eigen and Fritz Heimann, representatives from Transparency International, Stanley Morris, former director of FINCEN and consultant of Interpol and Mark Pieth, professor of Criminology of the University of Basel met about how to encourage US banks to develop anti-money laundering standards. In 1999, they approached a group of international banks to join.[1] The group consists of the following eleven global banks: Banco Santander, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Société Générale, UBS Banks. After September 11, 2001 (9/11), the group changed its focus to counter-terrorist financing.[1] [2]

Standards

As of 2015 the Wolfsberg Group has issued 14 documents they call The Wolfsberg Standards:[3] The first document was the Wolfsberg Anti-Money Laundering Principles for Private Banking, published in October 2000 and revised in May 2002.

In November 2002, the Group published the Wolfsberg Correspondent Banking Principles, in which they recommended a risk-based approach to AML and to develop an international registry for financial institutions, where those would submit information useful for conducting due diligence. After collaborating with Bankers Almanac.com, part of BankersAccuity, it launched a "Due Diligence Repository" as a module separate from its service to support.[4] In September 2003 the Group published the Wolfsberg Monitoring Screening & Searching Principles, in March 2006 the Wolfsberg Managing Money Laundering Risks, in March 2011 the Wolfsberg Trade Finance Principles, in October 2011 the Wolfsberg Guidance on Prepaid & Stored Value Cards, in 2012 the Wolfsberg Private Banking Principles, in 2014 the 14-page Wolfsberg Group Mobile and Internet Payment Services (MIPS) Paper, and a revision of Wolfsberg Correspondent Banking Principles.

Collaboration

In 2011, the Group wrote a comment in response to the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), reviewing its 2003 standards.[5] - Preparation for the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluations

Press coverage and criticism

The group has issued only 3 press releases: in April, 2007, in May 2008 re the Revised PEP FAQs, and in January, 2015 about US Treasury having incorporated "advanced sanctions list" format, which they based on data standards developed by the United Nations and the Wolfsberg Group. The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) maintains a "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons" (SDN) list.

Robert Mazur calls the group "wolves [...] guarding the sheep".[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hans-Peter Bauer and Gemma Aiolfi (2012). "The Wolfsberg Group". In Mark Pieth. Collective Action: Innovative Strategies to Prevent Corruption. Zurich,St. Gallen: Dike.
  2. ↑ "The Private Sector becomes active: The Wolfsberg Process" by Mark Pieth and Gemma Aiolfi, http://www.wolfsberg-principles.com/pdf/home/Wolfsberg-Process.pdf
  3. ↑ "Wolfsberg Standards". The Wolfsberg Group. n.d. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Accuity.com (n.d.). "Financial Counterparty KYC". Bankersalmanac. Reed-Elsevier. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Wolfsberg Group Comment Letter on FATF Standards Review January 2011". The Wolfsberg Group. January 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Robert Mazur (13 September 2010). "Follow the Dirty Money". New York Times. Retrieved 11 February 2015.

External Links

"Wolfsberg Group official site".