U.S. Congress Hearings Advance U.S. International Money Laundering Efforts

On September 26, 2001, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on anti-money laundering and funding terrorist activities. Senator Paul Sarbanes, (D-Md.) and chair of the Committee, chaired the hearing. Many of the Senators who testified as well as the full slate of the Committee members attending the hearing all underscored the need to move quickly on the pending anti-money laundering laws due to the pendency of the emergency in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist incidents. The hearings presaged the enactment of Title III on money laundering of the U.S. Patriot Act. The hearings and Title III illustrated a proactive effort of the U.S. to continue efforts to make international organizations strengthen the anti-money laundering regime and the broadening of interaction between counterterrorism sanctions and anti-money laundering.