Four federal agencies today proposed a joint rule that would align each agency’s Bank Secrecy Act compliance program requirements with proposed anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism requirements proposed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
FinCEN in June proposed a new rule to require financial institutions to establish and maintain “effective, risk-based and reasonably designed” ALM/CFT programs with certain minimum components, including a mandatory risk assessment process. It would also require financial institutions to review government-wide AML/CFT priorities and incorporate them “as appropriate” into risk-based programs. Most of the changes are being made to implement the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.
The proposed rule by the FDIC, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and National Credit Union Administration would align their requirements with those proposed by FinCEN. Comments on the interagency rule are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
