ICBA offers plan for modernizing BSA rules

ICBA laid out its plan for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to modernize its outdated Bank Secrecy Act framework to alleviate compliance burdens while producing more useful information for law enforcement.

Details: Responding to a FinCEN request for information under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, ICBA urged the agency to:

• Undertake a holistic review of financial crime outside the banking system.

• Raise Suspicious Activity Report and Currency Transaction Report thresholds.

• Withdraw bank beneficial ownership collection and verification requirements.

• Abandon plans to decrease record-keeping and travel rule thresholds.

• Allow banks to deploy resources to areas affecting their specific institution.

• Issue frequent reports on local, regional, and national trends, financial crime patterns, and threats.

• Provide more robust assurances for the use of new technologies.

More: ICBA last week separately called on FinCEN to withdraw bank beneficial ownership requirements now that it is required to collect this information directly from reporting companies.