The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has proposed a rule to change how Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) are filed by certain financial institutions, like state member banks and bank holding companies. The rule aims to allow for exemptions from these requirements to help banks more effectively meet Bank Secrecy Act requirements, potentially leading to innovative ways to tackle financial crime. The Board will coordinate with FinCEN on exemption requests and is seeking public comments on the proposal until February 22, 2021. The proposal emphasizes that these exemptions won't relieve institutions from complying with FinCEN’s SAR regulations.
Simple Explanation
The Board that helps manage banks wants to change the rules so banks can try new and better ways to catch suspicious transactions, but they have to follow special guidelines and rules from another group too. They are asking people to share their thoughts by a certain date to help make these rules better.