“Mitigate and Manage” vs. “Limit and Control” Risk
One of the changes in the recent FFIEC BSA Examination Manual updates was a move from having internal controls that “limit and control risk” to achieve compliance with BSA, to having internal controls that “mitigate and manage” risk associated with money laundering, terrorist financing (ML/TF) and other illicit financial activity.
This change stems from the July 22, 2019, Joint Statement on Risk-Focused Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Supervision. The Statement said, “to assure BSA/AML compliance programs are reasonably designed to meet the requirements of the BSA, banks structure their compliance programs to be risk-based and to identify and report potential money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit financial activity…Banks determine the levels and types of risks that they will assume and are encouraged to manage customer relationships and mitigate risks based on customer relationships, rather than declining to provide banking services to entire categories of customers.”
Limiting risk may have led many financial institutions to de-risk, in other words, they decline to provide banking services to entire categories of customers. For example, de-risking drove a lot of financial institutions to get out of high-risk activities, such as banking MSBs, marijuana-related businesses, etc. The updates to the BSA Examination Manual make it clear that examiners don’t want you to run away from risk, they want you to put appropriate controls in place and…manage it!
If you want more on the updates to the BSA Examination Manual, be sure to check out our webinar, The New BSA/AML Examination Manual, which is available now OnDemand.
Published
2020/06/03
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David Dickinson
David’s banking career began as a field examiner for the FDIC in 1990. He later became a Compliance Officer and Loan Officer for a small bank. In 1993, he established Banker’s Compliance Consulting. Along with his amazingly talented Team, he has written numerous compliance articles for prestigious banking publications and has developed compliance seminars that Banker’s Compliance Consulting produces.
He is an expert in compliance regulations. He is also a motivational speaker and innovative educator. His quick wit and sense of humor transforms the usually tiring topic of compliance into an enjoyable educational experience. David is on the faculty of the American Bankers Association National Compliance Schools and has served on the faculty of the Center for Financial Training for many years. He also is a frequent speaker at the ABA’s Regulatory Compliance Conference. He is also a trainer for hundreds of webinars, is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) and has been a BankersOnline Guru for many years. The American Bankers Association honored David with their Distinguished Service Award in 2016.
David and his wife Karen have three adult children, four grandchildren (none of whom live at home!) and two cats (of which Dave is allergic … the cats, not the children!). They recently moved to an acreage outside of Lincoln, Nebraska where he gets to play with his tractor. When possible David can be found fishing, making sawdust in his shop, or playing the guitar and piano. He also enjoys leading worship at his church.