Those so-called correspondent accounts provide tiny foreign banks that are subject to little government regulation with access to the American financial system.

A spokesman for Rosbank said the bank now had correspondent accounts at 53 banks.

A correspondent account is just like a checking account - except it's for an entire bank.

American Express Bank decided against setting up a correspondent account for Rosbank.

Commonly, correspondent accounts are the accounts of foreign banks who require the ability to pay and receive the domestic currency.

The same requirement would cover correspondent accounts from offshore or foreign banks from nations determined to pose high risks of money laundering.

Indeed, much of a shell bank's activity takes place not on Nauru (or even in the shack) but in "correspondent accounts" in other countries.

When are the prohibitions and strict conditions on foreign financial institutions' correspondent accounts or payable-through accounts in the United States effective?

Three Filipino banks have correspondent accounts with banks in Norway to allow for remittance transfers.

The transfer of money from shell banks to legitimate banks through these correspondent accounts has been cited as a major money laundering path.

"Correspondent accounts?"

And it seeks new laws to make it easier for law-enforcement officials to seize laundered money from foreign banks' correspondent accounts in United States banks.

The law prohibits shell banks from having correspondent accounts - deposit accounts that banks have in other banks - with American financial institutions.

MDM and Sobinbank, the charges say, also moved money through correspondent accounts at the Bank of New York.

Sinex opened a correspondent account with the Commercial Bank of San Francisco, which permitted it to operate in the United States.

The Treasury Department document says the Commercial Bank of Syria maintains correspondent accounts with a few American banks.

A dozen offshore banks identified in the report as having a history of suspicious accounts moved billions of dollars through correspondent accounts in the last several years.

One central provision long opposed by banks would let the Treasury require them to use enhanced "due diligence" to determine the source of large private banking and correspondent accounts.

Most overseas banks maintain what are called "correspondent accounts" in American banks, allowing them to exchange American currency and handle other financial transactions in this country.

Another provision would require foreign banks maintaining correspondent accounts in United States banks to designate someone here to receive subpoenas related to those accounts and their depositors.

The U.S. also targeted it because its allegedly terror-related funds indirectly filter through the banking system of the United States, through its use of correspondent accounts.

US regulations require that EDD measures are applied to account types such as Private banking, Correspondent account, and Offshore banking institutions.

Ms. Kagalovsky assured Inkombank representatives that "Bank of New York would be much more understanding about how to manage correspondent accounts than Republic," Mr. Zeltser said.

While specific clumps of money may enter a Nauruan correspondent account at a real brick-and-mortar bank, the person charged with managing those transactions sees only an unidentified flow of funds passing through.

And he complained that another provision, declaring correspondent accounts from shell banks permissible if a real bank owned 25 percent of the shell bank's shares, was a "broad loophole" inviting trouble.