Jim Kaplan and Matt Tucker Write Article About Narrower FinCEN Reporting for Law360
Quarles & Brady attorneys Jim Kaplan and Matt Tucker wrote an article about narrower FinCEN reporting for Law360. Kaplan, a partner, and Tucker, an associate, are Chicago-based members of the firm’s Business Law Practice Group.
The article discussed the recent testimony of the director of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the U.S. House of Representatives hearing and her call to modernize the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime, or AML/CFT, in the United States. Kaplan and Tucker note that the director’s comments are welcomed news for both the financial industry and the nation as it updates the monitoring process for identifying terrorist financing threats.
An excerpt:
Gacki in September signaled that the updates to the AML/CFT regime will ensure that
it is effective, risk-based, and focused on the greatest threats to financial institutions and national security. In furtherance of this effort, FinCEN is working with our Treasury colleagues to change the AML/CFT status quo so that the framework focuses on our national security priorities and highest risk areas and explicitly permits financial institutions to de-prioritize lower risks.[2]
The comments come at a time when 99% of financial institutions have reported an increase in costs for financial crime compliance and when total costs for compliance in the U.S. and Canada total $61 billion.[3]
The director's testimony is welcome news, for both the financial industry and the nation. In recent years, it has become apparent that the USA PATRIOT Act-required additions to the AML/know-your-customer requirements, binding on all regulated banks and many others besides, have been both critically overinclusive in some ways and underinclusive — or perhaps untargeted is a better word — in other ways.