WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a proposal Thursday to allow certain banks to opt out of filing suspicious activity reports, a compliance requirement that often draws industry complaints.
The proposed rule would exempt national banks from certain SAR requirements provided they’ve developed “innovative solutions intended to meet Bank Secrecy Act requirements more efficiently and effectively,” according to a press release.
Each of the four bank and credit union regulators — the OCC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve and National Credit Union Administration — have their own regulations involving anti-money-laundering reporting. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network uses those reports to work with law enforcement to identify illicit activity within the financial system.
For a bank to be fully exempted from the reporting obligations, it would also need to also need to receive an exemption from Fincen, according to the OCC proposal.
Under the proposed rulemaking, the OCC would require banks to submit a request in writing for an exemption. “In reviewing such requests,” the agency wrote in the proposal, “the OCC would consider whether the exemption is consistent with safe and sound banking, and any other appropriate factors, such as any outstanding supervisory concerns related to BSA/AML, including informal and formal enforcement actions.”
The FDIC issued a similar proposal Tuesday to create a process for obtaining SAR exemptions. The agency indicated then that “similar exemptions” will be proposed by the Fed and the NCUA.
