On 9/16/20, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking public comment on a number of questions pertaining to potential regulatory amendments under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Specifically, FinCEN explained in their advisory that they are seeking comment on creating a new AML program component, referred to as an “effective and reasonably designed” AML program component, so that financial institutions can be empowered to allocate resources more effectively. FinCEN also explained that this component would also seek to create an understanding between financial institutions and their regulators regarding which AML program elements are deemed necessary, while imposing minimal additional obligations under the existing supervisory framework.
Specifically, FinCEN’s release explained the following:
“The potential regulatory amendments described in the ANPRM would make clear that an “effective and reasonably designed” program is one that:
assesses and manages risk as informed by a financial institution’s own risk assessment process, including consideration of AML priorities to be issued by FinCEN consistent with the proposed amendments,
provides for compliance with BSA requirements, and
provides for the reporting of information with a high degree of usefulness to government authorities.
The ANPRM also seeks comment on proposals to impose an explicit requirement for a risk assessment process and for the Director of FinCEN to issue a list of national AML priorities, to be called FinCEN’s Strategic Anti-Money Laundering Priorities, every two years.”
FinCEN’s release can be found here.
The full ANPR can be found here.
