WASHINGTON, DC (June 14, 2018) — National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler today sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee urging the committee to support the Counter Terrorism and Illicit Finance Act (H.R. 6068) during its mark-up of the bill tomorrow as it could provide some regulatory relief to credit unions.
“Credit unions support efforts to combat criminal activity in the financial system,” Thaler wrote to committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Maxine Waters, D-Calif. “However, BSA requirements still remain a burden to implement, especially in the ever-growing tidal wave of new regulations since the financial crisis. That is why we are pleased to support this legislation that takes important steps to update and modernize the BSA/[anti-money laundering (AML)] regime.”
H.R. 6068 would update the dollar-amount thresholds for certain currency transaction reports (CTRs) and suspicious activity reports (SARs) and improve the sharing of SARs within a financial group. It would also require the Treasury Department and other related agencies to conduct a review of the current reporting requirements for financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in an effort to reduce regulatory burdens.
The bill would also encourage more coordination between law enforcement priorities and financial institution examiners – a move also supported by NAFCU. The bill contains provisions that would help ensure financial institutions can innovate in the BSA/AML space, including the establishment of a no-action letter process by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the ability to share suspicious activity information.
Also of note, the bill would provide a NAFCU-backed 18-month safe harbor for good-faith compliance with the new FinCEN customer due diligence rule.
For full text of the letter, click here.
The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions is the only national trade association focusing exclusively on federal issues affecting the nation’s federally-insured credit unions. NAFCU membership is direct and provides credit unions with the best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance. For more information on NAFCU, go to www.nafcu.org or @NAFCU on Twitter.
