Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual Update

Summary:

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) is updating sections and related examination procedures in the FFIEC Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) Examination Manual.

Statement of Applicability: This Financial Institution Letter (FIL) applies to FDIC-supervised institutions.

Highlights:

The FFIEC BSA/AML Examination Manual (“Manual”) provides instruction to examiners for assessing a bank’s BSA/AML compliance program and its compliance with BSA regulatory requirements.
The Manual itself does not establish requirements for financial institutions; such requirements are found in statutes and regulations.
Financial institutions should not interpret the updates as new instructions or an increased focus on certain areas; instead, the updates are intended to offer further transparency into the examination process and support risk-focused examination work.
Updated Manual sections include: (1) Purchase and Sale of Monetary Instruments Recordkeeping; (2) Special Measures; (3) Reports of Foreign Financial Accounts; and (4) International Transportation of Currency or Monetary Instruments Reporting.
New and revised Manual sections are identified by a 2021 date on the FFIEC BSA/AML InfoBase.
Future updates to other Manual sections will be announced as they are completed.