Reported by PYMNTS

(Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.pymnts.com/bank-regulation/2025/occ-ends-money-laundering-data-collection-requirements-for-community-banks)

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency(OCC) issued two bulletins that it said will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) compliance while reducing unnecessary regulatory burden on community banks.

In one bulletin, the OCC clarified the examination procedures applicable to these banks, tailoring the procedures based on community banks’ generally low levels of money laundering and terrorist financing risk, the regulator said in a Monday (Nov. 24) press release.

In another bulletin, the OCC reduced the data collection requirements imposed on community banks by discontinuing its Money Laundering Risk (MLR) system data collection, according to the release.

These changes are detailed in the regulator’s bulletins “Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering: Community Bank Minimum Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Procedures” (Bulletin 2025-37) and “Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Discontinuation of Annual Money Laundering Risk System Data Collection” (Bulletin 2025-38).

“Today’s actions further relieve community banks of unnecessary regulatory requirements and seek to better position them to help fuel job creation and economic development in local communities across the country,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said in the release.