In a perfect world, AML would be driven by objective industry standards and bright-line regulatory rules. In reality, however, many compliance issues defy tidy categorization but, rather, fall into ethical and professional gray areas where simple answers can prove elusive. In that spirit, ACAMS presents the following Great AML Debate, where arguments for each side will be presented, followed by a poll of attendees on who made the most persuasive case.

Resolved: The Bank Secrecy Act is outdated, imposes unproductive compliance costs and overvalues conformance to imprecise regulatory requirements and should therefore be replaced with a law or laws that reflect modern transaction systems and money laundering risks for both bank and non-bank entities, rationalizes costs vs. benefits in the imposition of regulatory requirements, and prioritizes financial crime prevention as a key metric in assessing satisfaction of compliance obligations.

Moderator

Gregg Fields, CAMS
Content Analyst
ACAMS    

Presenters

Frederick Reynolds
Managing Director, Global Head of Financial Crime, Employment and Competition Legal
Barclays

Jim Richards
Founder and Principal
RegTech Consulting LLC 

Sarah Runge
Global Head, FCC Regulatory Strategy
Credit Suisse 

William J. Voorhees, CAMS
Senior Vice President, Director, BSA/AML Financial Intelligence Unit
Truist Financial Corp.