Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Program Requirements: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Summary

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration (collectively, the agencies), issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking that would amend the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance program requirements that each agency has issued for its supervised banks. The amended regulatory requirements, which will be referred to moving forward as anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs, align with changes that are being concurrently proposed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a result of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act).

Highlights

The notice of proposed rulemaking would set forth the following changes, among others:

• Incorporating a risk assessment process in AML/CFT program rules that would require, among other things, consideration of national AML/CFT priorities published by FinCEN.
• Including customer due diligence requirements to reflect prior amendments to FinCEN's requirements.
• Including amendments to conform to changes made by the AML Act.
• Establishing a standard for the issuance of certain BSA-related enforcement and supervisory actions, including establishing a consultation process with FinCEN with respect to such actions.

Background

FinCEN is amending its BSA compliance program rules to incorporate national AML/CFT priorities and other changes to the BSA pursuant to the AML Act. The agencies have an independent mandate to prescribe regulations requiring banks to establish and maintain procedures reasonably designed to assure and monitor their compliance with the requirements of the BSA. The agencies are proposing to amend their rules concurrently with FinCEN.

The proposed rule continues to require banks to establish and maintain a program that is reasonably designed to ensure compliance with the requirements of the BSA, though with certain clarifications and changes. For example, the proposed rule explicitly incorporates customer due diligence (CDD) requirements that are currently set forth in FinCEN's parallel regulations, harmonizing the requirements between the regulations. The proposed rule also establishes a two-pronged framework for evaluating when a bank has "established" and "maintained" its program. The framework is intended to clarify how these existing requirements will be evaluated by the agencies moving forward.

The proposed rule would also establish a new notice and consultation framework applicable when one of the agencies intends to initiate an AML/CFT enforcement action or a significant AML/CFT supervisory action, as those terms are defined in the proposed regulation. Before initiating such an action, the agency would provide the director of FinCEN with an opportunity to review the action and would consider any input offered by the director of FinCEN.

Further Information

Please contact Jina Cheon, Assistant Director; Melissa Lisenbee, Counsel; Priscilla Benner, Counsel; Scott Burnett, Counsel; or Henry Barkhausen, Counsel; Chief Counsel's Office, at (202) 649-5490.

Jonathan V. Gould
Comptroller of the Currency

Related Link

• Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Program Requirements: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (PDF)