WASHINGTON-House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat John LaFalce (D-N.Y.) announced recently that they will work toward passage of the anti- money laundering bill they introduced last fall, H.R. 2896. The Foreign Money Laundering Deterrence and Anticorruption Act was a "marker for discussion purposes," and incorporated many of the provisions put forward in the Department of the Treasury and Justice Department's recently announced initiative. "The Secretary's proposal moves the process in the right direction, and we expect to co-sponsor this approach and make it the principal legislative vehicle for Committee mark-up purposes," they said in a joint statement. "The enhanced tools in the proposed legislation will lead to improved ways of preserving the integrity of the international financial system, working in partnership with our major trading partners and the world's market economies," said Leach and LaFalce. "The legislation will provide the Federal Government with more flexible and effective tools than those offered under existing law. We look forward to working with the Administration, law enforcement officials and the financial services industry, to enact a common sense approach to combating money laundering." -
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