Company: BWFG
Filing Date: 2025-03-05
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001505732-25-000052
Chunk: 34

Company: Bankwell Financial Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-05
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 34
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 institutions regarding suspected client money laundering, terrorism financing, or other violations of U.S. laws and regulations; and (5) requiring enhanced due diligence requirements for financial institutions that administer, maintain, or manage private bank accounts or correspondent accounts for non-U.S. persons.

Title III of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 amended the BSA and incorporates anti-terrorist financing provisions into the requirements of the BSA and its implementing regulations. Among other things, the USA PATRIOT Act requires all financial institutions, including us, to institute and maintain a risk-based anti-money laundering compliance program that includes a client identification program, provides for information sharing with law enforcement and between certain financial institutions by means of an exemption from the privacy provisions of the GLBA, prohibits U.S. banks and broker-dealers from maintaining accounts with foreign “shell” banks, establishes due diligence and enhanced due diligence requirements for certain foreign correspondent banking and foreign private banking accounts and imposes additional record keeping requirements for certain correspondent banking arrangements. The USA PATRIOT Act also grants broad authority to the Secretary of the Treasury to take actions to combat money laundering, and federal bank regulators are required to evaluate the effectiveness of an applicant in combating money laundering in determining whether to approve any application submitted by a financial institution.

On January 1, 2021, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which enacted the most significant overhaul of the anti-money laundering laws since the USA PATRIOT Act. The CTA aims to eliminate the use of shell companies that facilitate the laundering of criminal proceeds and, for that purpose, directs FinCEN to establish and maintain a national registry of beneficial ownership information for certain corporate and other business entities. The CTA required reporting companies subject the CTA to provide specific information with respect to 25% beneficial owner(s) at the time of formation (or by December 31, 2024 for entities existing on January 1, 2024) and upon a change in ownership. Non-compliance with FinCEN regulations promulgated under the CTA may result in civil fines as well as criminal penalties. Numerous lawsuits were filed in federal courts during 2024 seeking to block enforcement of the CTA, with some courts granting nationwide injunctions, all of which were eventually stayed or lifted. On February 20, 2025, after the last outstanding injunction was lifted, FINCen extended the original CTA filing deadline for existing reporting companies to March