Money Laundering Enforcement Act

Money Laundering Enforcement Act of 1991 - Amends Federal law regarding monetary transactions to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations under which a depository institution must identify its nonbank financial institution customers to the Secretary. Directs the Secretary to share such information with State supervisory agencies. Authorizes the Secretary to impose civil penalties for non-compliance with such disclosure requirements.

Amends the Federal criminal code to impose penalties for money transmitting businesses operating in violation of State law.

Directs the Secretary to promulgate procedures designed to insure that domestic financial institutions guard against money laundering.

Prohibits a financial institution or its personnel from disclosing the existence of a geographic targeting order (subjecting financial institutions in a certain area to special reporting requirements for lower dollar thresholds for a limited time).

Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to direct the Secretary to prescribe final recordkeeping regulations for international monetary transactions made by money transmitting and check cashing businesses and businesses that issue and redeem money orders and travelers checks.

Directs the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees, within 90 days, on the advantages for money laundering enforcement, and any disadvantages, of: (1) changing the size, denomination, or color of U.S. currency; or (2) providing that the color of U.S. currency in circulation in countries outside the United States will be of a different color than currency circulating in the United States.

Prohibits individuals, for the purpose of evading reporting requirements, from causing or attempting to cause a domestic financial institution to fail to file a report, or to file a report that contains a material omission or misstatement of fact, with respect to the purchase of certain monetary instruments. Authorizes the Secretary to prescribe that a financial institution report suspicious transactions relevant to possible violation of law or regulation. Bars any such institution from notifying any person involved in the transaction that such transaction has been reported.

Makes provisions of the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 (RFPA) (regarding notification to a Government authority of the existence of information relevant to suspected illegal activity) applicable to reports of suspicious transactions under Federal money and finance provisions.

Authorizes the Secretary to require financial institutions to have anti-money laundering programs including, at a minimum, the development of internal policies, procedures, and controls, designation of a compliance officer, an ongoing employee training program, and an independent audit function to test the program. Authorizes the Secretary to promulgate minimum standards for such procedures.

Amends the RFPA to: (1) permit a financial institution to refuse to do business with any person before or after disclosure of a possible violation of law or regulation made in good faith to a Government authority; and (2) make specified limitations on the use of information inapplicable when financial records obtained by a U.S. agency or department are disclosed or transferred to the Secretary (current law exempts only disclosures or transfers to the Attorney General) upon certain certification that there is reason to believe that such records may be relevant to a violation of Federal money-laundering provisions. Authorizes the transfer to the Secretary for analysis and use by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for criminal law enforcement purposes without customer notice, of financial records originally obtained by an agency in accordance with the RFPA.

Replaces provisions of the Crime Control Act of 1990, appointing an Electronic Scanning Task Force, with a provision directing the Secretary to initiate an in-house study to: (1) survey methods and technologies that may be used in the production of U.S. currency, in denominations of ten dollars or more, to make those notes traceable by an electronic scanning device; and (2) make an assessment and evaluation of the cost of implementing, and the amount of time needed to implement, the methods and technologies surveyed.