Patriot Act of 2001
Categories: Accounting, Company Management, Ethics/Morals, Board of Directors
There are books (and books and books) written on the Patriot Act, but here's the deal for finance:
The Patriot Act was drafted in reaction to 9/11 and was designed to track money going to foreign terrorist groups. It allowed the government to monitor many different activities revolving around global wire transfer of money and other things that could impinge on the safety and well-being of Americans. Basically, companies have to actively report a bunch of the activities that they never had to in the past as they relate to dealing with countries we don't necessarily want to invite over to next year's Thanksgiving dinner.
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Talk about an acronym.
The relevant part when it comes to money is Title III of the Act. It's called the "International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001" (seriously, who names these things?). That part of the act requires banks to report suspected money-laundering activities and to create tougher rules to prevent money laundering in the first place. It also makes it tougher to do some types of high-falutin' banking between U.S. banks and financial institutions around the world.