World Council of Credit Unions on July 31^st urged the  Financial Action Task Force to reduce anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance burdens in our comment letter on the FATF’s Draft Guidance for Private Sector Information Sharing.  The Task Force, which is based at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, France, is the international standard setting body for AML/CFT rules.

We argued that the Task Force should focus on reducing paperwork burdens on cooperative financial institutions as well as establish safe harbors, eliminate legal barriers to information sharing between unaffiliated financial institutions, and increase opportunities for compliance efficiencies.  “Information sharing can play a vital role in allowing financial institutions, supervisors and law enforcement to combat money laundering, but regulators need to focus on finding efficiencies and reducing costs on credit unions” said Andrew Price, regulatory counsel for World Council.

Our comments also urged the Task Force to incorporate its “Request for Information” framework established by its recent guidance on Correspondent Banking Services into its information sharing rules.  Referencing the “Request for Information” framework will help credit unions more easily establish and maintain correspondent bank accounts by reducing the perceived compliance, examination and enforcement risks associated with correspondent banking activities.