Despite recent announcements from the Trump administration regarding its desire to reduce regulation affecting financial institutions, all indications suggest the new administration believes the enforcement of the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) should remain a top priority over the next several years. The pace of inquiries and the amount of fines levied against institutions in the past few years, as well as individual compliance officers who have been cited for personally failing to ensure the proper levels of AML compliance programs at their respective banks, make it imperative that financial institutions of all sizes keep their AML programs up-to-date and effective. Any institution that fails to do so is likely to find itself in the crosshairs of an unwanted and expensive regulatory inquiry.
