American Banker | 25 people who will change banking in 2025

Donald Trump

President-elect, United States of America

Donald Trump's election as the 47th U.S. president will allow him to make dramatic changes not only in banking and economic policy, but also in the way policy is conducted. If this list contained only one name, surely that name would be Donald Trump.

Neither Trump nor his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, made firm campaign promises with respect to banking. Trump vowed to cut regulatory red tape and bring the economy back to where it was between 2017 and roughly March 2020, and that can offer bankers some clues about what the next president will do.

One initiative Trump undertook before he left office in 2021 and has promised to take up again is a retooling of the federal workforce to make it more directly accountable to him. How far Trump intends to take that initiative is unclear — particularly as it pertains to banking regulators — but he wouldn't have to do much for banks to notice the difference. A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with new leadership and new staff could point that agency in a more industry-friendly direction. A similar dynamic at the Federal Reserve — which controls not only bank regulatory policy but also monetary policy — could have more unpredictable ramifications for banks.

What seems assured, based on experience from Trump's first term in the White House and from Republican administrations more generally, is that the president's team will remove many, if not all, of the most onerous rules set under President Joe Biden. A Trump administration could decide not to defend many of the rules now being challenged in court. The CFPB's zealous enforcement of bank and nonbank malfeasance on untried legal grounds will likely end. Gone is Biden's skepticism of bank mergers. All of that works in banks' favor.

But Trump also had a tendency in his prior term to crack down on bad actors when their actions stirred sufficient public outrage. Trump promised to go after Wells Fargo as that bank's cross-selling scandal took flight; he was president when the Federal Reserve imposed an ominous asset cap on that bank in 2018 and seems to have never said anything about it one way or the other. That could mean that banks will have to consider that a lighter regulatory touch brings with it the need to be especially careful that their own houses are in order. — John Heltman

Michael Barr

Vice chair for supervision, Federal Reserve

Only one top banking regulator appears to have job security in 2025. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Martin Gruenberg has pledged to step down and acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu can be replaced at the president's wish.

That leaves Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr potentially to carry a heavy mantle alone.

Barr's vice chairmanship runs until summer 2026. His seat on the board of governors expires in 2032. In the near term, Barr will try to finalize a revised version of the contentious Basel III endgame capital proposal without triggering a legal challenge from banks. He will also look to lock in changes to long-term debt requirements, enhanced liquidity standards and a lower cap on fees for processing debit card transactions. Regulatory reforms are voted on by the full board of governors, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell plays a significant role in that process, but Barr sets the regulatory tone for the agency. — Kyle Campbell

Mike Bell

Credit union-bank merger pioneer, Honigman

Mike Bell, an attorney with the law firm Honigman in Michigan, is the most active advisor in the burgeoning merger-and-acquisition arena of credit unions buying banks. He estimates he has advised on more than 90% of such deals, which have gathered momentum this decade and reached all-time highs in 2024.

Through November, there were 20 deals this year involving credit unions buying banks. The industry has surpassed the prior record of 16 set in 2022. Recently, Bell advised Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which said in October it would acquire First State Bank of the Southeast in Middlesboro, Kentucky.

Bell correctly predicted 2024 would prove a record year. He expects momentum to extend into 2025, though that is not a sure thing. Community bank advocates oppose these deals.

The Independent Community Bankers of America says credit unions are exempt from federal taxes so that they can cater to underserved markets or constituencies — not to buy private-sector banks. When they buy banks, credit unions effectively become banking companies while retaining their special tax status, ICBA argues, creating an unfair playing field.— Jim Dobbs

Michelle Bowman

Governor, Federal Reserve

One of two remaining Trump appointees to the Federal Reserve's board of governors, Michelle Bowman could see an expanded role at the central bank — the question is how and when that power is formalized.

Bowman occupies the board seat reserved for a governor with banking or bank supervision experience. She has both, having worked as a vice president at her family's bank and serving as the state banking commissioner of Kansas.

Bowman frequently voices concern about policy impacts on community banks and has been the lone dissenting vote on several regulations. This advocacy has made her popular among bankers.

Bowman has been floated as a potential replacement for Michael Barr as vice chair for supervision, the Fed's top regulatory policymaker. Barr still has a year and a half left in his vice chairmanship, but Trump advisors are reportedly exploring options for stripping him of the title. — Kyle Campbell

David Cody and Luke LaHaie

Co-CEOs, Newity

While SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman won't be around past January 20, at least one of her policies appears likely to endure beyond her departure, namely her focus on small-dollar 7(a) lending.

Lenders appear to be embracing Guzman's priority, with a growing number launching initiatives aimed at making loans of $500,000 or less. Few have done so with more gusto than Newity, which originates 7(a) loans for the Portland, Maine-based Northeast Bank and has emerged over the last few months as one of the nation's most prolific SBA lenders.

Indeed, through the first six weeks of fiscal 2025, which began Oct. 1, Northeast — with Newity's help — is the nation's number-one 7(a) lender by unit count, with 1,070 approved loans. Northeast's average loan size is $156,600, well below the program-wide average of $407,000.

Luke LaHaie, Newity's co-CEO, intends for Northeast to stick around in the top spot. LaHaie, who said the demand for small-dollar SBA finance has been overwhelming, believes his team can originate at least 600 loans a month going forward. And with applications running in the neighborhood of 10,000 a month, Newity is working hard to fine-tune its processes. The goal, LaHaie said, is to reduce the time from application to funding to 21 days. It's likely getting there would push production even higher.

Newity's partnership with the $3.94 billion-asset Northeast traces back to 2020, when it helped originate Paycheck Protection Program loans. Once PPP ended, LaHaie and co-CEO David Cody retooled Newity's operation to focus on 7(a) loans. Under 7(a) SBA provides guarantees ranging from 50% to 85% on loans made by private lenders.
Newity had a small-dollar focus from the start, but it took time to hit its stride. Originations, which totaled less than 450 during SBA's 2023 fiscal year, surpassed 2,500 in fiscal 2024. "We've got about 100 people," LaHaie said in a recent interview with American Banker. "This is all we do, small-balance working capital loans with Northeast Bank. That's the product." — John Reosti

Raymond Chun

Incoming CEO, TD

TD Bank Group made history in 2024 for pleading guilty to compliance crimes in the U.S., which allowed criminal groups to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money through its branches. Now, the embattled bank must pay more than $3 billion in fines to U.S. law enforcement and regulators, operate under an asset cap indefinitely and deal with the costly clean up of its risk management controls.

There to inherit the mess is Raymond Chun, who will take the reins of Toronto-based TD from current President and CEO Bharat Masrani in April. Masrani, who has led the second-largest bank in Canada (ninth-largest in the U.S.) for a decade, said he takes full responsibility for the anti-money-laundering blunders, and announced in September he would step down.

Several potential successors to Masrani have been floated over the years, including the CEO of TD's U.S. subsidiary, Leo Salom, before American operations were hamstrung. Chun, a 32-year veteran at TD who most recently served as head of Canadian personal banking, didn't have a direct connection to the American regulatory operations.

"TD has so many advantages: a powerful balance sheet, terrific talent, high-performing businesses and leading franchises in Canada and the U.S.," Chun said on a September conference call. "We also have a significant challenge in front of us. … We have the team in place to strengthen our foundations, overcome the current challenges and write the next chapter of TD's story."— Catherine Leffert

Jamie Dimon

Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase

Dimon has been the most important banker in America for more than a decade and a half. Now that era could be nearing an end.

The 68-year-old boss of the nation's largest bank said in May that his timetable for retirement was less than five years — a benchmark he'd cited in the past when asked about how long he planned to stick around.

Whenever Dimon ultimately steps down, his decision will set off a series of dominoes that is likely to stretch beyond JPMorgan's doors, affecting other big banks as well.
Dimon's successor is expected to come from an experienced bench of executives on JPMorgan's executive committee. It's a good bet that some of the runners-up will eventually leave the company for major roles elsewhere.

For now, though, Dimon continues to make his mark atop a bank that not only sets the pace on financial performance, but also has emerged as one of the clear leaders in the industry-wide AI innovation race. — Kevin Wack

Richard Fairbank

CEO, Capital One Financial

By this time next year, Capital One Financial could be on the verge of acquiring a major rival: Discover Financial Services. Or the mega-merger could be on the rocks.
Whatever the outcome, Fairbank's $35 billion bid for Discover marks a major test for regulators' appetite for larger bank mergers. Some progressive groups and lawmakers are raising red flags, arguing the combination would create a credit card behemoth.

Capital One counters that the card market would stay competitive despite the merger. Plus Fairbank has touted what he's called the "holy grail," being able to run debit and credit cards on Discover's payments network.

Putting Capital One's weight into Discover could make that network more competitive compared to two key rivals, Visa and Mastercard, the argument goes.
Whether that will sway bank regulators or the Department of Justice isn't clear. But Trump's election victory could make big deals more achievable. — Polo Rocha

Umar Farooq and Max Neurkirchen

Co-heads of payments, JPMorganChase

Farooq and Neurkirchen in the past year took on the herculean task of leading JPMorganChase's payments business, which is one of the largest in the world with revenue on pace to reach $20 billion in 2024. They're also charged with protecting the bank's status as the largest merchant acquirer in the U.S. The stakes are huge, as Farooq and Neurkirchen take over for Takis Georgakopoulos, the bank's 17-year former payments chief who spearheaded adoption of e-commerce, biometrics and blockchain. Georgakopoulos left JPMorgan to take an executive and board position at Fiserv.

Farooq has led Onyx, JPMorgan's blockchain division, while Neurkirchen has led merchant services for the bank. JPMorgan is facing major regulatory changes, such as new open banking rules in the U.S. that could boost competition from fintechs and smaller banks, and pending credit card legislation that could squeeze card fees. There are also major technology projects underway as JPMorgan expands in the areas of blockchain, biometrics and artificial intelligence. "Organizations are demanding more deeply integrated and embedded solutions to support their end-to-end payment experiences that go beyond traditional payments-related pain points, such as customer experiences and support with developing, launching and enhancing payment products," said Neukirchen in an earlier interview. — John Adams

Jane Fraser

CEO, Citi

Jane Fraser is wrapping up the ambitious Citi reorganization she announced in September 2023.

The market appears to be responding to her efforts. The bank's stock has seen a 62% increase since the announcement, and for the third quarter of this year, each of Citi's five businesses — markets, banking, wealth, U.S. personal banking and services — reported a year-over-year uptick in revenues.

As part of the reshuffle, Fraser continues to wind down retail operations in Russia, China and Korea.

The three-time Most Powerful Woman in Banking honoree is the only woman to lead one of the top 50 U.S. banks. Supporters are hoping that Fraser doesn't fall prey to the "glass cliff" that other women have suffered, most notably Sallie Krawcheck. In 2009, Krawcheck was offered the CEO role at Merrill Lynch after a mass exodus of financial advisors and in the fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis. Krawcheck was ousted just before her second anniversary as CEO. — Mary Ellen Egan

Tom Fraser

CEO, First Mutual

Fraser, who spearheaded the creation of First Mutual Holding Company in 2015, has emerged as one of mutual banking's most vocal and creative leaders.
The idea behind the $3.3 billion-asset, Lakewood, Ohio-based FMHC was to create an umbrella organization that could help small depositor owned-banks rein in expenses and preserve their charters. Four mutual institutions have joined in the past nine years.

In September, Fraser, First Mutual's CEO, gave the model a new wrinkle, presiding over a first-of-its-kind, $5 million private placement for a First Mutual subsidiary, the $105 million-asset Warsaw Federal Savings and Loan Association in Cincinnati. Depositor-owned banks have rarely, if ever, succeeded in tapping investment capital, so a number of other mutuals took note in hopes Warsaw Federal's transaction could serve as a template for future deals.

Fraser was named president and CEO of First Mutual's flagship bank, the $2.9 billion-asset First Federal Lakewood, in 2013. Fraser stepped down from those roles — retaining his position as holding company CEO — in 2018 to focus on strategy and advocacy. Fraser has served as chairman of the Ohio Bankers League and the America's Mutual Banks trade group. In October, he was appointed to a three-year term on the American Bankers Association's board. — John Reosti

Travis Hill

Vice chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

A veteran of regulatory agencies and the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Board Vice Chairman Travis Hill is a strong contender for FDIC Chairman. Hill crafted many of Trump's key deregulatory measures as top aide to then-FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams, and as vice chairman has led the internal resistance to Biden-FDIC regulations — particularly those proposed in the wake of the March 2023 bank failures.

Working alongside McWilliams, Hill spearheaded a Trump-FDIC rule in 2020 narrowing the definition of deposit brokerage. In his time as Vice Chair, Hill has opposed Biden-era rules — widely panned by industry allies — that aimed to reverse the 2020 rule and expand the definition of brokered deposits.

Hill has also been a major critic of current FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, advocating for him to step down immediately after a scandal that saw him accused of anger management issues and presiding over a culture of discrimination and sexual harassment in an agency commissioned report. Gruenberg instead vowed to step down following confirmation of a successor.

Hill will also shape some of the highest priority regulatory measures for banks in the Trump era. Chief among these is a proposed large-bank capital increase under the Basel III endgame. Industry analysts have indicated a Republican-led FDIC board will likely significantly soften the rule, pushing the final implementation toward 2026. — Ebrima Sanneh

Gunjan Kedia

President, U.S. Bancorp

Kedia, who moved earlier this year into the #2 job at Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, could become the next woman to lead a major American bank.

If it happens, Kedia would become only the second woman at the helm of a top-50 bank by assets. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser is alone today in holding that distinction.

Kedia, born in India, is an engineer by training. She held roles at PwC, McKinsey, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street before joining U.S. Bancorp in 2016 as its vice chair of wealth management and investment services.

U.S. Bancorp CEO Andy Cecere will turn 65 in July. He hasn't announced when he plans to retire.

Kedia has spoken about the need to leverage the interconnectedness of the company's business lines — consumer and business banking, payment services and the unit known as wealth, corporate, commercial and institutional banking — in order to hit its financial targets. The heads of all three business lines already report to her. — Kevin Wack

Thomas Kurian

CEO, Google Cloud

Google Cloud is the primary cloud provider for a respectable share of the financial services sector. And since Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia departed in mid-2024, the cybersecurity firm's operations now fall under the purview of Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

Under Mandia, Mandiant gained a reputation as one of the premier cyber-intelligence sources for enterprises, which is part of what drove Google's decision in 2022 to acquire the firm. Mandiant has been at the heart of many important cybersecurity investigations, including the 2020 SolarWinds supply chain compromise.

Kurian and Sandra Joyce, vice president at Google Cloud and head of Mandiant intelligence, will play a pivotal role moving forward in gathering and disseminating the cybersecurity intelligence Mandiant has gained a reputation for collecting. — Carter Pape

Robert Lighthizer

Trade attorney

Robert Lighthizer, who served as the U.S. trade representative from 2017 to early 2021, is reportedly leading the planning for higher tariffs in Trump's second term.
As a presidential candidate, Trump expressed support for an across-the-board tariff of 10%-20%, a tariff of at least 60% on goods imported from China and a 25%-100% tariff on products made in Mexico.
It's not clear what role Lighthizer might have in Trump's next administration, but it will likely fall to him and his allies to turn the president-elect's campaign promises into action. Lighthizer is a 77-year-old lawyer who's long argued that mainstream economists miss the benefits of tariffs and overstate their costs.
Critics of protectionist trade policies warn that Trump's tariff plan amounts to a large sales tax on U.S. consumers, and that it risks sparking trade wars. Lighthizer is said to believe that it will spark a renaissance in American manufacturing.
If large-scale tariffs are enacted, the economic ramifications will be substantial, and U.S. banks will feel the effects, whether they facilitate global trade or not.
Goldman Sachs economists predicted on Nov. 14 that the Trump administration will ultimately impose higher tariffs on automobiles and imports from China. "The biggest risk is a large across-the-board tariff, which would likely hit growth hard," they added. — Kevin Wack

Jonathan McKernan

Board member, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

McKernan, one of two Republicans on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s board, figures to get consideration for a higher-profile position in the next Trump administration. One rumored landing spot is atop the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where McKernan previously served as a senior counsel.

The FHFA could be a key center of action over the next four years, as the debate over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may finally come to a head. Isaac Boltansky, an analyst at BTIG Partners, wrote in a Nov. 7 note to clients that if Trump chooses to prioritize ending the 16-year-old conservatorships, that goal will be accomplished.

Mark Calabria, who served as the FHFA's director during the first Trump administration, gave a similar assessment during a pre-election interview with HousingWire. "You don't need Congress to do it," Calabria said. "Having been the guy who started it, I know a lot of work was done. There's a road map; it's all doable." — Kevin Wack

Brian Moynihan

CEO, Bank of America

The leader of the second-largest bank in the U.S. is hoping business as usual will become more profitable in 2025, as the dust settles on rate volatility and the election.
Meanwhile, Bank of America is also reworking its branch network to milk markets where it has a smaller presence for more consumer growth.

In 2024, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank saw compressed income as industry-wide tepid loan growth and expensive deposits dragged on its balance sheet. Coming up, Bank of America could also be hit with one or more public enforcement actions with regulators to resolve compliance concerns.

But Moynihan, a pillar of the megabank scene since he took the helm at Bank of America in 2010, is confident in the direction of the $3.3 trillion-asset company's business.
Moving into a second Trump administration, the 65-year-old leader said at a November conference that economic policies should enhance American strengths, like innovation and capitalism. — Catherine Leffert

Satya Nadella

CEO, Microsoft

Cloud computing is critical to digital banking, and Microsoft Azure shares the crown with Amazon Web Services as the most popular provider among U.S. financial institutions.

This market domination has also earned criticism from executives at financial services companies and regulators, who say the consolidation of the cloud computing market poses a cybersecurity risk to the financial sector.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has the power to seek further consolidation or change company policies to satiate these concerns. Either way, securing Microsoft products (especially Azure) also secures the banking industry, and any insecurity in the company's products and services leads to risks for banks. — Carter Pape

Joseph Otting

CEO, Flagstar Financial

In March 2024, Joseph Otting added another chapter to his long banking career when he joined New York Community Bancorp as part of a $1 billion capital infusion and took over as chairman and CEO of the Long Island-based company, which was facing dire circumstances amid souring commercial real estate loans.

Now all eyes are watching to see if Otting, who was the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency from 2017 to 2020, and his management team will be able to pull off the turnaround plan they laid out in May and boost the lagging stock price of the company, now renamed Flagstar Financial.

Otting isn't a stranger to bank overhauls. In 2008, he and fellow former Trump administration official Steven Mnuchin, who led the $1 billion investment in Flagstar, took over California lender OneWest Bank and turned it around, selling it to CIT Group in 2015.

Otting's plan will face some challenges. Flagstar posted a wider-than-expected net loss in the third quarter and lowered its outlook for turning a profit in the near future. — Allissa Kline

Jerome Powell

Chairman, Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell could find himself fighting wars on two fronts: on one side, the Fed's years-long offensive against inflation, on the other, a defensive battle to fend off the White House.

The Fed has made strides in stabilizing prices, but inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank's 2% target. Trump policy proposals such as universal tariffs and sweeping tax cuts could lead to rapid price growth once again.

Then there's the personal politics. Powell and Trump bumped heads repeatedly during Trump's first stint in office and the president-elect's advisors are reportedly weighing their options for removing or demoting Powell.

But Powell, whose chairmanship ends in 2026 and whose board position does not expire until 2028, has said emphatically that he will not step down and that Trump can't force him to. The conflict could have ripple effects for bank policy and the economy writ large. — Kyle Campbell

Charlie Scharf

CEO, Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo's asset cap is nearing its seventh birthday, and investors are hoping CEO Charlie Scharf ensures the megabank won't see any more.

Scharf joined the San Francisco bank in late 2019, with his chief responsibility being reforming its systems so that the Federal Reserve will unshackle the bank from its $1.9 trillion asset cap.

It's not a done deal yet, and Scharf has long said any progress will be accompanied by setbacks. Indeed, a new regulatory action over anti-money laundering protections raised the specter of more regulatory pushback.

But there have been some tangible signs of progress, with regulators lifting other penalties as Wells Fargo gets its house in order. Investors sense Scharf will soon succeed at getting the asset cap lifted, supercharging the bank's growth after years of constraints.

Scharf has declined to speculate on regulators' timeline. But he has made strides to improve Wells Fargo's business in the meantime, trimming its vast mortgage footprint, growing its underperforming credit card business and increasing its investment banking presence. — Kevin Wack

Taylor Swift

Singer

It's no small feat that more than 400,000 people clicked a link on Taylor Swift's Instagram post, where she endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, to visit vote.gov for information on how to register for this year's election. In her post, the performer highlighted an issue that many bankers struggle with today: responsible use of artificial intelligence.

Swift was rattled by AI-generated images of her falsely endorsing former President Donald Trump. "It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation," she wrote on Instagram to her 283 million followers.

It may never be clear how many people voted only because of Swift's statement, or whether their votes were enough to sway the election. But regardless, her message got through.

In a recent interview, FICO Chief Analytics Officer Scott Zoldi weighed in on the fundamental question Swift raised: "What is truth?"

Tools like blockchain can provide that answer in a trusted way that AI does not, he said.

"One of the things we want to do is make sure that we are questioning what we're seeing," Zoldi said. "When we're leveraging tools like large language models, we have to be constantly aware of the fact that there's mistakes and hallucinations made … one of my biggest fears is that people just go on autopilot and they'll just use the technology and not question it." — Daniel Wolfe

Elizabeth Warren

U.S. Senator, Massachusetts

Elizabeth Warren, who is widely regarded as one of the primary architects of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has established herself over the last 11 years not only as an outspoken critic of the banking industry, but also as a lawmaker with the power to shape policy.

Warren makes frequent calls for increased regulation over nearly every aspect of the financial services industry with an eye toward increasing consumer protections. This past year alone she's called for an asset cap on Citigroup, a higher capital ratio at NY Community Bank, increased regulation over fintech partnerships such as buy now/pay later and banking-as-a-service, and reforms of Federal Home Loan banks. She has been critical of industry lawsuits against the changes to the Community Reinvestment Act.
She's even slammed the Department of Justice for side-stepping tougher action against TD Bank over its money laundering failures.

That's unlikely to change in 2025 or through the end of the decade as Warren serves her third term, although the Democrats will be the minority party in the Senate. — Joey Pizzolato

Kevin Warsh

Lecturer and economics fellow, Stanford University

Kevin Warsh could be tapped by President-elect Donald Trump for a high-profile role — perhaps even Federal Reserve chair — in the coming years. Warsh, a former Fed governor known for his hawkish views on monetary policy and deep skepticism of expansive intervention, could bring a significant shift in the central bank's approach. Warsh has long advocated for a leaner, more disciplined central bank, and his appointment would herald a shift toward tighter control of the Fed's gargantuan balance sheet.
That said, Warsh or whoever Trump would like to tap for Fed chair will have to wait. Current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's term expires in February 2026, and it's unclear whether Trump would try to oust him from his position in the interim (Powell himself has said that he can't be removed and suggested that he intends to serve out the remainder of his term). — Claire Williams

Xi Jinping

President, People's Republic of China

Besides the important economic ties between China and the U.S., and indeed the centrality of the country to the world economy, China also poses a threat to "every sector that makes our society run," according to FBI director Christopher Wray. Banking is no exception.

Chinese criminals support the Mexican drug trade through money-laundering services, and hackers linked to the Chinese government — such as Volt Typhoon — are behind some of the most notable attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, including recent compromises of American internet service providers, the U.S. government has said.

Xi can direct his party to continue supporting these cyber operations against critical infrastructure in the U.S. He can also continue to participate in a bilateral agreement with the U.S. to combat illicit drug manufacturing and trafficking, which involves money-laundering networks. — Carter Pape