The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network last week issued government-wide policy priorities for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. According to the priorities, the most significant AML/CFT threats currently facing the country are corruption, cybercrime, domestic and international terrorist financing, fraud, transnational criminal organization activity, drug trafficking organization activity, human trafficking and human smuggling, and proliferation financing.

In a separate interagency statement issued by FinCEN and the federal banking agencies, the agencies stated that publication of the priorities “does not create an immediate change to Bank Secrecy Act requirements or supervisory expectations for banks.” The agencies said they will revise their BSA regulations within the next six months to address how the priorities will be incorporated into banks’ BSA requirements.

The agencies added that they will not examine banks for the incorporation of the priorities into their risk-based BSA programs until the effective date of the revised regulations. The priorities list will be updated every four years, as required by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. Read the list. Read the interagency statement .