InfoBytes Blog
Senate passes NDAA with significant AML provisions
On December 11, the U.S. Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021 in a 84-13 vote, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in the week. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the NDAA includes a number of anti-money laundering provisions, such as (i) establishing federal disclosure requirements of beneficial ownership information, including a requirement that reporting companies submit, at the time of formation and within a year of any change, their beneficial owner(s) to a “secure, nonpublic database at FinCEN”; (ii) expanding the declaration of purpose of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and establishing national examinations and supervision priorities; (iii) requiring streamlined, real-time reporting of Suspicious Activity Reports; (iv) expanding the definition of financial institution under the BSA to include dealers in antiquities; and (v) including digital currency in the AML-CFT enforcement regime by, among other things, expanding the definition of financial institution under the BSA to include businesses engaged in the transmission of “currency, funds or value that substitutes for currency or funds.” The NDAA has been sent to President Trump, who has publicly threatened to veto the measure; however, the legislation passed both the Senate and the House with majorities large enough to override a veto.