Bank Secrecy Act : Treasury Can Improve Implementation of the Act

Bank Secrecy Act : Treasury Can Improve Implementation of the Act PDF Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Banking law
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Bank Secrecy Act : Treasury Can Improve Implementation of the Act

Bank Secrecy Act : Treasury Can Improve Implementation of the Act PDF Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Banking law
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description


Bank Secrecy Act

Bank Secrecy Act PDF Author: Jack E. Edwards
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437914349
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description
The legislative framework for combating money laundering began with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in 1970 and most recently expanded in 2001 with the USA PATRIOT Act. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) administers BSA and relies on multiple federal and state agencies to ensure financial institution compliance. This report: (1) describes how BSA compliance and enforcement responsibilities are distributed; (2) describes how agencies other than FinCEN are implementing those responsibilities and evaluates their coordination efforts; and (3) evaluates how FinCEN is implementing its BSA responsibilities. Charts and tables.

Bank Secrecy Act: FinCEN & IRS Need to Improve & Better Coordinate Compliance & Data Management Efforts

Bank Secrecy Act: FinCEN & IRS Need to Improve & Better Coordinate Compliance & Data Management Efforts PDF Author: United States. Government Accountability Office
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781422311424
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
In 2005, over 16 million Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports were filed by more than 200,000 U.S. financial institutions. Enacted in 1970, BSA is the centerpiece of the nation's efforts to detect and deter criminal financial activities. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) play key roles in BSA compliance, enforcement, and data management. GAO was asked to describe FinCEN's and IRS's roles and assess their effectiveness at ensuring BSA compliance and efforts to reengineer BSA data management. FinCEN and IRS have distinct roles, but share some responsibilities in implementing BSA. FinCEN's role is to oversee the administration of BSA by numerous agencies including IRS. IRS's role is to (1) examine nonbank financial institutions (NBFI), such as money transmitters and check cashers, for compliance with BSA; (2) investigate potential criminal BSA violations; and (3) collect and store BSA reported data by all financial institutions. IRS continues to face challenges in identifying NBFIs subject to BSA and then using its limited resources to ensure compliance. First, IRS has identified approximately 107,000 potential NBFIs, yet FinCEN, IRS, and others agree there is a portion of the NBFI population IRS has not identified. Identifying NBFIs is inherently challenging and made even more difficult because FinCEN regulations about who is covered are confusing, especially for smaller businesses. Second, IRS currently lacks, but is working to develop, a statistically valid risk-based approach for selecting NBFIs for compliance examinations. IRS only examines a small fraction of NBFIs, less than 3.5 percent in 2005, highlighting the need for building risk into the selection process. IRS is statistically validating a risk-based approach for targeting compliance examinations on certain NBFIs suspected of noncompliance. IRS's validation study is a step in the right direction, but IRS's approach will continue to have limitations because the study was not designed to be representative of all potential NBFIs. And lastly, IRS established a new office accountable for BSA compliance, and is working to improve examination guidance. However, IRS's management of BSA compliance has limitations, such as a lack of a compliance rate measure and a comprehensive manual that NBFIs can use to develop anti-money laundering programs compliant with BSA. Addressing program challenges, such as identifying NBFIs and examining those of greatest risk of noncompliance will take time and require prioritizing actions and identifying resource needs. However, FinCEN and IRS lack a documented and coordinated strategy with time frames, priorities, and resource needs for improving NBFI compliance with BSA requirements. FinCEN has undertaken a broad and long-term effort to reengineer, and transition from the IRS, all BSA data management activities. FinCEN, however, missed opportunities to effectively plan this effort and to coordinate its implementation with IRS. For example, FinCEN began making significant investments in information technology projects before a comprehensive plan to guide the reengineering effort was in place. When a key project--BSA Direct Retrieval and Sharing--failed, it jeopardized the future of the broader reengineering effort. After investing over $14 million (nearly $6 million over the original budget) in a failed project, FinCEN is now reassessing BSA Direct but does not yet have a plan for moving forward with the broader effort to reengineer BSA data management activities.

Bank Secrecy Act

Bank Secrecy Act PDF Author: United States. Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In 2005, over 16 million Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports were filed by more than 200,000 U.S. financial institutions. Enacted in 1970, BSA is the centerpiece of the nation's efforts to detect and deter criminal financial activities. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) play key roles in BSA compliance, enforcement, and data management. GAO was asked to describe FinCEN's and IRS's roles and assess their effectiveness at ensuring BSA compliance and efforts to reengineer BSA data management. FinCEN and IRS have distinct roles, but share some responsibilities in implementing BSA. FinCEN's role is to oversee the administration of BSA by numerous agencies including IRS. IRS's role is to (1) examine nonbank financial institutions (NBFI), such as money transmitters and check cashers, for compliance with BSA; (2) investigate potential criminal BSA violations; and (3) collect and store BSA reported data by all financial institutions. IRS continues to face challenges in identifying NBFIs subject to BSA and then using its limited resources to ensure compliance. First, IRS has identified approximately 107,000 potential NBFIs, yet FinCEN, IRS, and others agree there is a portion of the NBFI population IRS has not identified. Identifying NBFIs is inherently challenging and made even more difficult because FinCEN regulations about who is covered are confusing, especially for smaller businesses. Second, IRS currently lacks, but is working to develop, a statistically valid risk-based approach for selecting NBFIs for compliance examinations. IRS only examines a small fraction of NBFIs, less than 3.5 percent in 2005, highlighting the need for building risk into the selection process. IRS is statistically validating a risk-based approach for targeting compliance examinations on certain NBFIs suspected of noncompliance. IRS's validation study is a step in the right direction, but IRS's approach will continue to have limitations because the study was not designed to be representative of all potential NBFIs. And lastly, IRS established a new office accountable for BSA compliance, and is working to improve examination guidance. However, IRS's management of BSA compliance has limitations, such as a lack of a compliance rate measure and a comprehensive manual that NBFIs can use to develop anti-money laundering programs compliant with BSA. Addressing program challenges, such as identifying NBFIs and examining those of greatest risk of noncompliance will take time and require prioritizing actions and identifying resource needs. However, FinCEN and IRS lack a documented and coordinated strategy with time frames, priorities, and resource needs for improving NBFI compliance with BSA requirements. FinCEN has undertaken a broad and long-term effort to reengineer, and transition from the IRS, all BSA data management activities. FinCEN, however, missed opportunities to effectively plan this effort and to coordinate its implementation with IRS. For example, FinCEN began making significant investments in information technology projects before a comprehensive plan to guide the reengineering effort was in place. When a key project--BSA Direct Retrieval and Sharing--failed, it jeopardized the future of the broader reengineering effort. After investing over $14 million (nearly $6 million over the original budget) in a failed project, FinCEN is now reassessing BSA Direct but does not yet have a plan for moving forward with the broader effort to reengineer BSA data management activities.

Bank Secrecy Act Compliance

Bank Secrecy Act Compliance PDF Author: Robert E. Powis
Publisher: Irwin Professional Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
The Bank Secrecy Act consists of a number of record keeping and reporting requirements designed to overcome foreign bank secrecy laws and to deter money laundering. This Fifth Edition, give the indispensable combination of the most current regulatory information possible, a comprehensive reference guide and practical advice on handling one of banking's most complex regulations. It contains all the information needed on the BSA in one convenient volume. From the core regulations of the Act to the latest ruling of the Treasury Department, this book includes full coverage of the changes currently underway in Washington, including: the new Form 4789, complete with all regulations; minimum BSA compliance standards; the death penalty'' for non-complying banks; enhanced wire transfer record-keeping requirements; new cash reporting guidelines; updated information on the $3000 Rule.''

The Bank Secrecy Act

The Bank Secrecy Act PDF Author: Leif Ekstrom
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Banking law
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
This book explores the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which is a legislative framework for combating money laundering. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is responsible for the administration of the BSA regulatory structure, and has delegated examination responsibility to the federal banking regulators. This book describes how BSA compliance and enforcement responsibilities are distributed, how agencies other than FinCEN are implementing those responsibilities and the evaluation of their co-ordination efforts. This book also discusses security policies and controls for systems at three organisations to evaluate whether security controls effectively protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information and systems that support FinCEN's mission. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

Bank Secrecy Act

Bank Secrecy Act PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Financial services industry
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description


Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money Laundering

Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money Laundering PDF Author: Lilian B. Klein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Banks and banking
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
The Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, also known as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), and its implementing regulation, 31 CFR 103, is a tool the U.S. government uses to fight drug trafficking, money laundering, and other crimes. Congress enacted the BSA to prevent banks and other financial service providers from being used as intermediaries for, or to hide the transfer or deposit of money derived from, criminal activity. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) monitors national bank compliance with the BSA and 31 CFR 103. Since its passage, Congress has amended the BSA a number of times to enhance law enforcement effectiveness. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which included the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 (MLCA), strengthened the government's ability to fight money laundering by making it a criminal activity. The Money Laundering Suppression Act of 1994 (Title IV of the Riegle-Neal Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994) required regulators to develop enhanced examination procedures and increase examiner training to improve the identification of money laundering schemes in financial institutions.

Status of Open Recommendations

Status of Open Recommendations PDF Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Administrative agencies
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Domestic Money Laundering

Domestic Money Laundering PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Banks and banking
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description