The terrorist attacks on our country that occurred on September 11, 2001 were, without a doubt, the most horrific and deadly in our history. In the aftermath of these attacks, the United States Congress moved quickly to pass legislation that untied the hands of law enforcement in an effort to make investigating terrorist organizations easier. On October 26, 2001, a mere 45 days after the 9/11 tragedy, Congress passed the USAPATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act. The overall purpose of the USA PATRIOT Act was: “To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes …show more content…
financial institutions” (Tompkins, 2002 p.5). Among these “firsts” is the requirement that all U.S. financial institutions exercise due diligence before allowing a non-U.S. financial institution to open an account with them and thus gain access to the U.S. financial system. The “first” here is the federal governments’ definition of a U.S. financial institution. The Act greatly expanded this definition to include: banks, security firms, insurance companies, and businesses that transfer funds or engage in large cash transactions. Also, for the first time, all of the aforementioned institutions are required to have anti-money laundering programs with the ability to verify the identity of their customers. When it comes to suspicious activity reporting included in Section 352 of the USAPATRIOT Act, “suspicious may not necessarily mean the same thing to all people”. “An activity that may seem suspicious to an auditor or examiner may not raise the same red flag with a community bank executive, or even another examiner”(Proctor, 2003, p.1). This causes a serious problem in the way institutions comply with the requirements of suspicious activity reporting. With that said, suspicious activity reporting forms the cornerstone of the anti-money laundering goals set out by the USAPATRIOT