The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) submitted a comment letter to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) yesterday in response to an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) issued by the agency. The letter proposes recommendations for how to define AML program effectiveness and recommends that FinCEN, in coordination with other regulatory agencies, provide institutions the flexibility to design AML programs that align with their business models. This flexibility, coupled with regulatory reforms, would empower banks to devote additional resources to working with law enforcement to address more serious crimes and would improve the utility of the information available to the law enforcement and intelligence communities.
The letter calls on FinCEN to provide clarity to institutions regarding the legal obligations for meeting existing requirements. It also requests that the agency affirm a recent statement acknowledging guidance is nonbinding, and that compliance expectations apply only to law and regulations.
