The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN): Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 Implementation and Beyond

On January 1, 2021, Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA) as Division F of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2021 (P.L. 116-283). AMLA amends and builds upon the existing anti-money laundering (AML) statutory framework, originally established under the Bank Secrecy Act in 1970 (BSA; P.L. 91-508). AMLA also contains the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA; Title LXIV of Division F of the FY2021 NDAA), which for the first time imposes a federal requirement for identifying beneficial owners of certain legal entities. AMLA represents one of the most comprehensive efforts in recent decades to modernize the U.S. government’s regulatory architecture for AML, combat the financing of terrorism (CFT), and detect other financial crime activity. Its impact, however, has been shaped by executive branch implementation actions. Among its most significant objectives, AMLA contains provisions to establish new federal-level beneficial ownership disclosure and transparency requirements; expand the BSA’s purpose and mandate a review of the AML/CFT regulatory framework; promote public-private partnership and engagement opportunities on AML/CFT matters; introduce new staffing options and programs to enhance AML/CFT expertise; promote international cooperation on financial crime matters, while protecting financial intelligence from misuse; strengthen enforcement tools to deter money laundering and other forms of financial crime; invigorate BSA whistleblower provisions; and expand the BSA’s regulatory scope to include businesses that provide services involving “value that substitutes for currency.” The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the primary federal agency responsible for implementing many of AMLA’s provisions. A bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, FinCEN plays a leading role in protecting the U.S. financial system from illicit financial threats through its mission to collect and maintain a repository of financial intelligence from financial institutions and then analyze and disseminate this information to law enforcement agencies in support of investigations pursuing perpetrators of criminal activity. As one of the primary regulators and administrators of the BSA, FinCEN also has a leading role in AMLA’s implementation. AMLA has tasked the Secretary of the Treasury, often in practice acting through the Director of FinCEN, to promulgate multiple federal rulemakings to strengthen and improve the AML/CFT regulatory regime, issue multiple reports, and take other programmatic and personnel actions. Some Members of Congress and other policy observers and stakeholders have been monitoring FinCEN’s progress in implementing AMLA, including the CTA. AMLA specifies deadlines for many of its implementation tasks—some of which, including the CTA’s directive for FinCEN to establish a federal database for identifying the beneficial owners of certain corporate entities, are substantively and politically challenging to achieve. Section 6509 of AMLA authorizes appropriations for AMLA implementation through FY2026 and the Trump Administration has proposed more than $17.5 million in FY2026 funding for “further AMLA implementation and administration priorities.”