The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) Thursday released updates to four sections of the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) Examination Manual.

The manual provides instructions to examiners for assessing the adequacy of a bank’s or credit union’s BSA/AML compliance program and its compliance with BSA regulatory requirements. The manual itself does not establish requirements for financial institutions; such requirements are found in statutes and regulations.

The updates affect the following Manual sections:

• Introduction – Assessing Compliance with Bank Secrecy Act Regulatory Requirements
• Customer Identification Program
• Currency Transaction Reporting
• Transactions of Exempt Persons

According to the FFIEC, the updates should not be interpreted as new instructions or as a new or increased focus on certain areas; instead, they offer further transparency into the examination process and support risk-focused examination work. 

These updates will be identified by a 2021 date on the FFIEC BSA/AML InfoBase.

Updates to other sections of the manual will be announced as they are completed.