June 30, 2016
Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo today announced that the Department of Financial Services (DFS) has adopted a risk-based anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering regulation that requires regulated institutions to maintain programs to monitor and filter transactions for potential Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) violations and prevent transactions with sanctioned entities. The final regulation requires regulated institutions annually to submit a board resolution or senior officer compliance finding confirming steps taken to ascertain compliance with the regulation.
“Financial institutions doing business in New York must do everything they can to help stem the tide of illegal financial transactions that fund terrorist activity,” said Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo. “It is time to close the compliance gaps in our financial regulatory framework to shut down money laundering operations and eliminate potential channels that can be exploited by global terrorist networks and other criminal enterprises.”
The risk-based rule adopted by DFS today takes into consideration comments that were submitted by the financial services industry and others during the extended comment period for the previously-proposed regulation, which ended March 31, 2016.