U.S. MOVES TO CUT DOWN ON MONEY LAUNDERING

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration, saying it is stepping up the war
on drug-related money laundering, will require thousands of check-cashing,
money-remitting and currencyexchange businesses to register with the U.S.
government.

Treasury Department officials said the new regulations aimed at businesses
ranging from giant money remitters such as First Data Corp.'s Western Union
unit to small, storefront check-cashing firms - were designed to give law
enforcement officials a better look at an industry that they said had in
some cases provided drug dealers a handy way to launder their cash.

Money laundering generally involves taking cash derived from illegal
operations and turning it into safe and legal assets - for example, by
wiring it out of the country or depositing it in a bank account.

The government already targets such operations by forcing the disclosure of
large cash transactions. And just like banks, the "money services
businesses" that Treasury is targeting are already required to report all
cash transactions of more than $ 10,000 and keep records of transactions of
$3,000 or more.

But compared with banks, which are heavily regulated and monitored, the
services businesses are relatively unwatched, Treasury officials said.

The new regulations will "give us for the first time a truly comprehensive
picture of this industry who owns them and what services they provide,"
said James Sloan, director of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Failure to register will be a crime punishable by a fine of $5,000 per day
and up to five years in prison.

Although Mr. Sloan emphasized that "the great majority" of the
money-services businesses had nothing to do with money laundering, law
enforcement officials have found some to be a hotbed of drug-related cash
transfers.

Elisabeth Bresee, the Treasury's assistant secretary for enforcement, said
a 1996 operation in New York found that a handful of money remitters were
sending $800 million a year to Colombia - an amount officials said would
have required every Colombian household in the area to send home $30,000 a
year.

Industry representatives gave Treasury high marks for trying to craft rules
that would not be burdensome to business. "They really listened and tried
to learn what this business is all about," said Peter Ziverts, vice
president of corporate communications for Western Union.

"They've developed a meaningful set of rules that will provide good
information," he said. "What they need to crack down on money laundering is
information. "