On June 18, 2025, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender spoke at the 62nd Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG) plenary meeting where he discussed the Trump Administration’s guiding principles for BSA modernization.
As stated by Faulkender, the Treasury will continue to use the following guiding principles in its BSA modernization efforts:
Regulation should derive from a clear statutory mandate, including safety and soundness, mitigating material risk to financial stability, and consumer protection;
Regulation should be efficient, striking an appropriate balance between costs and benefits;
Regulation should be fair and objective, and there should be clarity and consistency in the industry across entities and time; and
Regulators themselves should be efficient in mitigating risk and in the use of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.
In his speech, the Deputy Secretary also emphasized that reporting, SAR and CTR in particular, is an area that needs to be modernized. SARs and CTRs are essential for law enforcement in combating security threats like drug cartels and terrorism, but the reporting burden on financial institutions is significant. Faulkender added that the Treasury is actively exploring ways to streamline the SAR and CTR reporting processes to better allocate compliance resources. Additionally, there is an emphasis on encouraging financial institutions to innovate responsibly in identifying and reporting suspicious activities.
Read the full speech here.