The Model Act contains significant discretion for the state agency administering the Act to suspend or revoke licenses in appropriate cases, to impose civil and criminal penalties where necessary for the enforcement of the law, and for the promulgation of regulations in aid of the Act. The experience to date under the Model Act in the states where it has been enacted has been good. In short, there is no need to duplicate the efforts of the MTRA in this regard, particularly where that effort has resulted in the adoption of modern safety and soundness regulation. This is an issue that applies to both banks and non-banks. That is, it should be a crime under state law to engage in money laundering activities or to fail to file the reports or maintain the records required under the Bank Secrecy Act.
Many states have a variety of anti-money laundering laws, but no uniformity exists among the states.
Other states have enacted laws which designate as a state felony non-compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act recordkeeping and recording requirements. It would be a worthy goal to develop a uniform state law in this area. Such a model law would help to provide an effective tool to combat illegal entities, and, hopefully, be fully consistent with Bank Secrecy Act recordkeeping and recording requirements. However, there is no accepted model with regard to currency exchanges and check cashers, nor does one exist with regard to state criminal sanctions for money laundering.