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Thursday, August 27th, 2015
THE MTRA CONFERENCE IN KANSAS CITY, MO, OCTOBER 6-8
The U.S. Money Transmitter Regulators Association unveils its agenda for their 25th Annual Conference
This year, the Kansas City Marriott Downtown will be the host of the MTRA, the conference that brings together the regulators from all the states as well as delegates for a large majority of the companies licensed as money transmitters in the country. Monday the 5th and Tuesday the 6th are regulators-only sessions. The industry forum starts on Tuesday at 1:30 pm and continues till Thursday at noon. IMTC will be hosting the Industry Welcome Reception on Tuesday evening from 5:30 pm till 7:00 pm in the beautiful & historic “Barney Allis Lobby”. You are all invited. I will be delivering a presentation on Thursday, Oct 8 at 8:30 am entitled Global Money Transmitter Industry: A Comparative Look between the US and the World. Read more about the Conference in our Blog.
THE NEW US MONEY SERVICE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION – MSBA – IS ANNOUNCED
The MSBA organizing committee announces that it is still time for Founding Members to join in before regular membership begins.
After months of meetings, conference calls and drafts, THE MONEY SERVICE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION (MSBA) has been formed. The organizing committee, in its first public announcement, stated: “The MSBA is a trade association focused on the non-bank money services industry, including licensed money transmitters and their agents/authorized delegates, payment card issuers and distributors, payment processors, international remittance companies, bill payment companies, mobile payment application providers, payment aggregators, virtual currency exchanges and administrators, eWallet providers and other similar money services providers that are engaged in payments”. The Key Aspects and the Initial Priorities of the Trade Group have been established and a timeline has been released for companies wanting to be part of the Founding Members and Borad of Directors to step up. Read more in our Blog or contact the MSBA directly.
BANK ACCOUNT CLOSURES IN THE CARIBBEAN
Bank Account closures of Non-Bank Financial Institutions in the Caribbean increasing
Comments in the recent KAW Complance Conference in Antigua as well as articles in local media, such as this one in the Cayman Compass and The Gleaner are part of another round of the anticompetitive practices Banks are pursuing under the excuse of Compliance and Reputational Risks.
A number of banks in the Caribbean are being forced by their US Correspondent Banks to close accounts of local money transfer, currency exchange and other non-bank financial institutions. This has prompted the reaction of local regulators to require banks to notify and support in writing their decisions to close accounts, in view that most of these companies are licensed by the same entity that licenses and supervises banks.
