The U.S. Financial Services Committee published prepared opening remarks for a National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Subcommittee hearing on modernizing the anti-money laundering framework. In the remarks, Subcommittee Chairman Warren Davidson argued that the Bank Secrecy Act should move away from volume-driven reporting toward a more risk-based regime that raises legacy reporting thresholds and makes fuller use of artificial intelligence. Davidson said financial institutions now file nearly 5 million suspicious activity reports and more than 21 million currency transaction reports each year, while the main thresholds remain USD 5,000 for SARs and USD 10,000 for CTRs, with the latter equivalent to more than USD 80,000 today if adjusted for inflation. He cited a December 2024 Government Accountability Office report showing law enforcement accessed 5.4 percent of CTRs filed between 2014 and 2023, welcomed FinCEN's April anti-money laundering program notice of proposed rulemaking as a shift away from check-the-box compliance and toward risk-based programs, but criticized the proposal for not revisiting CTR or SAR thresholds. The remarks also criticized beneficial ownership reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act, which Davidson said would have applied to 30 million small businesses, and FinCEN's Residential Real Estate Rule as examples of expanding reporting burdens without clear law enforcement value.
U.S. Financial Services Committee2026-05-21
U.S. Financial Services Committee subcommittee holds hearing on Bank Secrecy Act reform with focus on higher reporting thresholds and AI
The U.S. Financial Services Committee’s National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Subcommittee released opening remarks on modernizing the anti-money laundering framework, with Chairman Warren Davidson urging a shift in the Bank Secrecy Act from volume-driven reporting to a risk-based regime that raises legacy reporting thresholds and leverages artificial intelligence. Davidson highlighted low law-enforcement use of currency transaction reports, welcomed FinCEN’s April anti-money laundering program notice of proposed rulemaking but criticized its failure to revisit suspicious activity and currency transaction report thresholds, and cited beneficial ownership reporting as expanding burdens without clear law enforcement value.