Anti-Money Laundering Regulators Back ‘Innovative’ Compliance

Financial regulators are pressing banks to use new technologies and innovative approaches to detect and report transactions that could be linked to money laundering activity.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) joined U.S. banking agencies in promising not to impede banks’ development and testing of compliance program updates, according to their joint statement on Dec. 3. This includes withholding any “supervisory criticism” of pilot programs, even those that prove unsuccessful, they said.

Regulators also said they won’t necessarily initiate “supervisory action” if banks’ pilot programs expose gaps in their Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering compliance programs.

The ...