Peter Djinis
Arguments on Capitol Hill over extension of the USA Patriot Act will not impact existing broker/dealer compliance regulations. Congressional infighting is over Title II of the Act, which outlined law enforcement procedures for surveillance of private citizens, noted Robert Serino, the senior advisor of financial services at Watkins Consulting in Washington D.C. and the former deputy chief counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Those provisions were scheduled to sunset, or expire, Dec. 31. Recent public debate over changing the Act's terms could be misleading for compliance professionals, said Serino, who is also counsel with the law firm Buckley Kolar in Washington, D.C. "With the Patriot Act, people think it is one thing, and it is actually several things," Serino said. Title III of the Act, which set out regulations for anti-money laundering programs and expanded the definition of a financial institution to B/Ds, was not set to expire, said Anne Marie Kelly, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). "[Title III is] not up for discussion or debate with what we are required to do here, which is administer Title III and the Bank Secrecy Act," Kelly said. Peter Djinis, a former FinCEN official, said B/D compliance professionals must still comply with AML requirements, which include record-keeping, recording currency transactions exceeding $10,000 and reporting suspicious activity. "The AML provisions of the Patriot Act have been memorialized," Djinis said. "They are not up for grabs right now."