US regulators are ramping up efforts to combat money laundering and enforce know-your-customer (KYC) rules, with a strong focus on compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), as reported by Reuters.
Despite broader deregulation discussions following Donald Trump's election, financial crime enforcement remains a bipartisan priority. In remarks at an industry conference last week, Whitney Case, Associate Director of the Enforcement and Compliance Division at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), emphasized that combating financial crimes “has been a priority area, and you are going to see enforcement actions.”
"In the BSA/AML universe, we have a broad remit, so we are going to continue to see a variety of actions against a variety of financial institutions," Case said. At the same conference, Greg Coleman, Senior Deputy Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), flagged "emerging weaknesses" in banks' risk management practices, urging immediate attention.
Financial crime enforcement actions are also escalating, exemplified by TD Bank's recent guilty plea for conspiring to launder money, leading to a $3 billion fine and asset cap. FinCEN's Whitney Case cited "significant gaps in the monitoring" that necessitated regulatory action.
Join The Discussion