The American Bankers Association today issued a members-only staff analysis of the government-wide policy priorities for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network released June 30. The staff analysis also summarizes the separate interagency statement that FinCEN and the federal banking agencies issued simultaneously with the priorities.
According to the agencies, the most significant AML/CFT threats currently facing the country are corruption, cybercrime, domestic and international terrorist financing, fraud, transnational criminal organization activity, drug trafficking organization activity, human trafficking and human smuggling, and proliferation financing. In the statement, the agencies said that publication of the priorities “does not create an immediate change to Bank Secrecy Act requirements or supervisory expectations for banks.” The agencies said they will revise their BSA regulations within the next six months to address how the priorities will be incorporated into banks’ BSA requirements.
“While banks are encouraged to review the priorities and become familiar with the risks, banks should not take any further action until the banking agencies issue actual regulatory guidance for how to handle the priorities,” according to ABA’s analysis.