WASHINGTON—FinCEN should modernize and streamline suspicious activity reports (SARs) and records, which will help better identify financial crimes, NAFCU said.
NAFCU made the request in a letter to the House Financial Services Committee prior to its hearing “Oversight of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.”
Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler said that SAR reporting thresholds are “outdated,” having “remained unchanged for decades.” Due to that issue in combination with the rapidly increasing inflation rate, NAFCU recommended that FinCEN immediately begin studying the impacts of tying the SAR reporting thresholds to inflation.
“The outdated thresholds cause some SARs to be useless to law enforcement because behavior that was once thought of as suspicious has since become common transaction practice,” added Thaler.
Thaler further said the outdated SARs thresholds cause major burdens for credit unions as their members rely on them to assist with all financial matters, and the burden of notifying reporting companies should not lay on their shoulders.
Technology Neutrality
In addition, the letter discussed FinCEN’s previous indication that it views itself as “technology neutral,” regulating the activity of money transmission and not just specific types of transactions – since credit unions continue to abide by BSA/AML rules and regulations and the risks associated with digital assets remain a significant concern, NAFCU noted.
“As FinCEN and other federal agencies work together on an initial government-wide strategy regarding digital assets regulation and supervision, it is important that FinCEN maintain its technology neutral stance,” Thaler said.
You May Be (Actually Are) Missing Out!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.