AML Law May Incentivize More Whistleblowers at Financial Institutions

As part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which recently was approved in the US Senate, lawmakers also passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. According to a client alert from Gibson Dunn, the AMLA is the most comprehensive set of reforms to the anti-money laundering laws since the USA PATRIOT Act was passed in 2001. The client alert identifies 10 of the biggest takeaways for financial institutions from the AMLA. One important takeaway is that the AMLA may spur an increase in whistleblowers at financial institutions. The Gibson Dunn alert notes that, similar to the SEC whistleblower program, the AMLA provisions “may incentivize employees and plaintiffs’ attorneys to provide a substantial number of new tips to law enforcement, even if many of them do not result in enforcement actions” and that the number of employees at financial institutions who have access to information that could potentially form the basis for an AML whistleblower complaint is many times greater than in other contexts. The alert also points out that the AMLA significantly increases the government resources committed to anti-money laundering and expands the penalties available for violations of the Act.