In a joint statement, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network clarified their risk-focused approach for assessing bank compliance under Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering ("BSA/AML") regulations.
The regulators stated that a risk-focused approach does not create any new requirements or supervisory expectations for banks. They said that the risk focused approach is intended to provide banks with transparency about how regulators utilize risk assessments to determine the scope and depth of BSA/AML regulatory exams. Under the risk-focused approach, regulators:
- leverage available information (e.g., a bank's BSA/AML risk assessment, independent testing and audits, and results of previous examinations) to assess each bank's risk profile;
- communicate with banks between examinations or before finalizing the scope of an examination;
- consider a bank's ability to identify, measure, monitor and control risks;
- allocate more regulatory resources to higher-risk areas.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.