February 2004

I was delighted when Mary Ellen’s invitation arrived for lunch with Women in Housing and Finance. Your diverse network of members offers me, as FinCEN’s new Director, a great opportunity to engage in a frank discussion about regulatory issues and anything else you would care to talk about today. But before I discuss our current work with regulations, I’d like to take a moment to put it all in context by briefly describing FinCEN’s overall mission.

Good afternoon. I am honored to be given the opportunity to participate in the Conference of State Bank Supervisors International Dialogue Day. Strong cooperation at the federal and state levels is important for FinCEN – we cannot do an effective job in ensuring that financial institutions have adequate anti-money laundering controls, controls that are critical to the protection of our nation’s financial system, without your help.