WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Financial Technology Association (FTA) submitted comments in response to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) proposed rule to fundamentally reform anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) program requirements for financial institutions subject to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
“We broadly support the direction of this proposal and appreciate that the Agencies have seriously considered the feedback received in response to the 2024 Program Rule NPRM,” wrote FTA Head of Policy Angelena Bradfield. “We particularly welcome the proposed rule’s emphasis on effective, risk-based AML/CFT programs, the explicit recognition that financial institutions should direct more resources toward higher-risk activity and fewer toward lower-risk activity, the distinction between program establishment and maintenance, and FinCEN’s affirmative encouragement of innovative technologies, including AI and machine learning.”
FTA offered additional changes to help ensure that covered institutions have a clear understanding of, and are comfortable calibrating their programs to, a genuinely risk-based approach, including:
- The Agencies should embed resource redeployment flexibility and good-faith compliance protections directly in the regulatory text;
- FinCEN should tailor its approach to establishing National AML/CFT Priorities to further reinforce the risk-based framework;
- The Agencies should use this rulemaking cycle to modernize SAR filing requirements and enhance law enforcement feedback mechanisms to increase the real-world utility of AML/CFT reporting;
- The “significant or systemic” enforcement threshold should apply to all financial institutions;
- The Agencies, where appropriate, should provide affirmative, durable guidance on AI/ML tools and digital assets;
- The Agencies should provide operational clarity on what program effectiveness looks like in practice;
- FinCEN should clarify how the board approval requirement applies to multi-entity corporate structures; and
- The final rule’s effective date should be set at least 24 months from issuance, with a phased pathway for institutions implementing innovative compliance technologies.
Read FTA’s full comment letter here.
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