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SEC Fines Merrill Lynch $7.5M: The Danger of Automated Screening Engines
In this episode of the Trade Compliance Brief, we dive into the latest regulatory crackdown from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On June 29, 2026, the SEC penalized Merrill Lynch $7.5 million for systemic failures in their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) programs.
Discover how a flawed, rigid threshold in an automated transaction monitoring system created a multi-year blind spot, allowing hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions—including large round-dollar wires and high-risk geographical transfers—to bypass federal…
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