Big banks are acting fast to change money-laundering rules that have been a pain since the the U.S. government began leaning heavily on the banking sector to stop the financing of terrorism and other crime after the September, 11th attacks.
Reuters reports that the Clearing House, a trade group representing big banks, plans to release a proposal as early as today to no longer require banks to flag all suspicious transactions, and instead require them to investigate specific customers at the behest of law enforcement.
Why it matters: Some of the biggest fines charged to banks in recent years have been for money laundering infractions related to terrorism or drug trafficking rather than financial-crisis misdeeds. Republican national security hawks may not warm to this sort of deregulation.