U.S. May Monitor Money Sent Abroad by Wire

The Bush Administration disclosed Wednesday that it is considering ways to monitor wire transfers of large sums of money abroad by banks as part of its efforts to crack down on international money-laundering.

Treasury officials said they are considering regulations that would require banks to report electronic transfers to overseas destinations from deposits made in U.S. banks totaling $10,000 or more.

Banks already must report such deposits, but they are not required to tell the government when a customer asks that part of the deposit be wired abroad.

The Treasury announced two more steps that it is planning to take to increase the monitoring of large transactions. Officials said that they soon will ask banks to make their reports of deposits of $10,000 and above on magnetic tape instead of on paper to help speed processing of the data.

They disclosed also that the government soon will open a new joint federal financial crime center in Arlington, Va., to coordinate data on money-laundering that has been gathered by the U.S. Customs Service, the Internal Revenue Service and other law enforcement agencies.

The disclosures were made at a hearing of a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee by Salvatore R. Martoche, assistant secretary of the Treasury for law enforcement.

Martoche said that, in addition, U.S. officials are conferring with their counterparts in Europe and Japan in an effort to coordinate international monitoring of money-laundering activities.

Money laundering is of concern to U.S. authorities because it frequently is used by drug dealers to hide their transactions. By transferring large sums among banks, drug kingpins often can disguise their activities.