Despite bankers' complaints of the regulatory burden of Bank Secrecy Act reporting, Office of Thrift Supervision Director John Reich said Tuesday that the filings were useful in cracking down on financial criminals.
At a Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council BSA Conference in Arlington, Va., Mr. Reich cited a recent Federal Bureau of Investigation review of BSA documents and statistics that said out of 71 million documents filed by banks and others, more than 88,000 suspicious activity reports, or roughly 0.12%, were relevant to terrorism investigations.
Mr. Reich also said statistics compiled by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network show that since 2005, BSA enforcement actions have declined for the OTS, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Reserve Board. That decline shows that anti-laundering requirements are becoming ingrained in the operations of financial institutions, he said.
"I am an unabashed advocate of regulatory burden relief," Mr. Reich said. "However, the fact is undeniable that reports from our institutions of suspicious activities and currency transactions are essential parts of our BSA/AML efforts. It is gratifying that the filing burden is not borne in vain."
