Marshall Islands likely to lose key U.S. banking links next year.

(From PacNews)

29 NOVEMBER 2004 MAJURO (Pacnews) --- This report by James Brooke - New York Times News Service, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands The United States' Patriot Act and its regulations aimed at cutting off funding to terrorists has hit the main bank in the tiny central Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands.

Despite the country's removal from an international money-laundering blacklist, the Marshall Islands main bank, one of only two serving the country, is faced with the prospect of losing key U.S. banking links by early next year.

U.S. Citizens Security Bank (CSB) notified Bank of the Marshall Islands earlier this month that it would …