Fincen seeking advisors for panel on modernizing AML

• Key insight: Treasury’s Fincen is seeking members to join a panel advising on modernizing anti-money-laundering compliance, a key priority of the administration.
• Supporting data: Depository institutions subject to the Bank Secrecy Act, trade associations, regulators and enforcement personnel are eligible to serve for three-year terms on the panel.
• Forward look: The panel will weigh in on the administration’s ongoing push to streamline AML regulation as well as implementation of the GENIUS Act, a recently passed stablecoin law. 

The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or Fincen, is seeking nominations to join a public-private forum advising the government’s ongoing efforts to reform the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering regulations. 

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According to a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register, bank regulators, law enforcement officials and members of the financial industry would be eligible to serve three-year terms on the panel, which it calls the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group.

“BSAAG membership is open to financial institutions subject to the BSA, trade groups that represent financial institutions subject to the BSA, and federal and non-federal regulators, including self-regulatory organizations, and law enforcement agencies that are located within the United States,” the notice said. “Treasury is particularly interested in hearing the views of community banks and smaller financial institutions. … Entities that solely provide software products or services or consulting services for financial institutions are not independently eligible for BSAAG membership.”

The BSAAG was established in 1992 as part of the Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act, and advises the agency on BSA requirements and takes industry feedback on data usage. Fincen Director Andrea Gacki chairs the committee.

For the 2026 cycle, the agency is particularly interested in members who can speak to modernizing the BSA/AML regime and implement the recently passed GENIUS Act, which created a federal regulatory structure for stablecoins, including anti-money-laundering provisions.

Membership is granted to entire organizations, though individual, unpaid representatives will be required to attend meetings twice a year in Washington. Fincen says it will seek broad industry and geographic representation.

“In making the selections [we] will seek to complement current BSAAG members and obtain broad representation in terms of affiliation, industry, and geographic representation,” the agency said. “The Director retains full discretion on all membership decisions[ and] may consider prior years’ applications when making selections and will not limit consideration to entities nominated by the public when making selections.”

The Treasury Department and other bank regulators — including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — have announced efforts to simplify anti-money laundering compliance, focusing particularly on how rules can discourage relationships between banks and politically sensitive clients. 

Secretary Scott Bessent also has said reforming anti-money-laundering rules is a top priority to a crowd of bankers at the American Bankers Association Washington Summit in April last year. Bessent said at the time that the agency would focus on making changes to the framework that “truly focus on national security facilities in higher risk areas and explicitly permit financial institutions to de-prioritize lower risk.”

Comptroller Jonathan Gould in October said the current framework has at times prompted banks to end relationships with legitimate customers out of fear of regulatory reaction or liability.

“We’re very aware of the challenges that BSA and AML compliance may have posed to banks trying to do the right thing, where they are concerned about how their examiner might react or legal liability,” Gould said.

Top lobbyists for the Bank Policy Institute on Monday published an opinion piece in American Banker calling for Fincen to “reassert its control,” over AML policy. They called for the agency to move away from process-oriented regulations and focus on the most serious risks as well as remove duplicative or onerous regulations that have low rates of money laundering detection.