AML CHALLENGES
obtaining foreign currency, she pointed
me to a young lady at the other end of
the teller line. I don’t know if she was
another teller, the head teller or someone
higher up just standing there, but I got
the impression that anything to do with
foreign currency revolved around her.
I decided to take a different tack, realizing immediately that she seemed more
approachable than the branch manager at
bank A. I let her know I worked for a bank
and understood that the policies of most
banks require a customer to have a deposit
account. But I was a loan customer.
I continued on about how a loan customer is just as much a customer as someone with a checking or savings account,
even better with the amount of interest the
bank was earning off me. While stating my
case, I hit my marks with emphasis and
humor on certain phrases. She listened
politely, agreeing and nodding with every
few words (a standard customer service
ploy prior to delivering bad news), finally
www.ACAMS.org
agreeing with me in totality. She verified
who I was and the existence of the loan (I
had brought my loan documents with me,
just in case) and 48 hours later I had my
foreign cash.
Differing philosophies?
When I left the bank that day, I began a
debate in my mind of what had transpired
from an AML perspective. Money launderers are social engineers too. B