Law360, New York ( March 10, 2015, 10:19 AM EDT) -- In the past year, a number of major financial institutions have been hit not just once, but twice by federal and state regulators for follow-on regulatory violations, including financial sanctions issues. Other institutions have suffered record breaking fines for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and economic sanctions violations. In this environment, the superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, Benjamin Lawsky, announced recently that his agency is about to propose a requirement that senior banking executives personally "sign off" on the "adequacy and robustness" of the anti-money laundering (AML) compliance programs that their firms use to spot suspicious customer financial transactions. This requirement would represent a major escalation of pressure on firms to prevent the types of serious financial crimes and abuses that have recently received significant attention....