Congress overrides veto of NDAA with significant BSA/AML provisions

Financial Crimes Federal Issues Anti-Money Laundering Bank Secrecy Act Combating the Financing of Terrorism Virtual Currency Of Interest to Non-US Persons U.S. House U.S. Senate Veto Federal Legislation Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 Digital Assets

On January 1, the U.S. Senate voted to override President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, following a similar vote in the House a few days prior. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the NDAA includes significant changes to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, such as:

• 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”;
• Expanding the declaration of purpose of the BSA and establishing national examinations and supervision priorities;
• Requiring streamlined, real-time reporting of Suspicious Activity Reports;
• Establishing a Subcommittee on Innovation and Technology within the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group to encourage and support technological innovation in the area of AML and countering the financing of terrorism and proliferation (CFT);
• Expanding the definition of financial institution under the BSA to include dealers in antiquities;
• Requiring federal agencies to study the facilitation of money laundering and the financing of terrorism through the trade of works of art; and
• Including digital currency in AML-CFT enforcement 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.”