On February 15, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a long-anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to impose comprehensive anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism requirements on investment advisers within the asset management sector (the Proposed Rule). The NPRM represents FinCEN’s third effort to subject investment advisers to AML program regulations. By expanding the definition of “financial institution” in the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA) implementing regulations to cover both investment advisers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and exempt-reporting advisers, FinCEN’s Proposed Rule would extend to this sector not only the AML compliance program and suspicious activity reporting requirements of the BSA but also the special information-sharing procedures established by Sections 314(a) and 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act as well as other requirements of the BSA’s AML program framework.
