What is BSA?
Adam uses this Compliance Clip (video) to explain what BSA is in the banking industry. This video provides a high-level overview of BSA and money laundering, giving a general overview of the rule. For more information on BSA and anti-money laundering laws, take a look at our BSA Basics program at www.compliancecohort.com/bsa-basics.
Video Transcript
The following is a transcript of this video.
This Compliance Clip is going to talk about what is BSA. The question we have today is “What is BSA?”
If you do a quick Google search on BSA, you may find the Boy Scouts of America. That, of course, is not what we're talking about. We're talking about the Bank Secrecy Act. And the Bank Secrecy Act is what financial institutions have to have in their organizations as far as anti-money laundering programs. Really what has happened is that anti-money laundering laws were developed to prevent and reduce the amount of illegal transactions from entering the financial system. So the whole point of your BSA program and your financial institution is that you are trying to prevent and detect illegal money from getting into the financial system. That's why we have these laws and that's why we have to have BSA and anti-money laundering or AML programs.
Financial institutions have to have a program that is designed to prevent and detect a number of things. It has to prevent and detect terrorist financing. It has to prevent and detect certain suspicious activity, and it also has to prevent and detect money laundering. Now of course, the question is what is money laundering? ‘Cause this is part of BSA and a big part of your BSA and AML programs.
Money laundering is the act of taking dirty money, and we're talking here about illicit funds or illegal funds, illegal proceeds, and conducting transactions in a way that prevents red flags from occurring. So essentially what's happening is we are cleaning the money so it appears to be legitimate and avoid suspicion. So we're taking dirty money, somehow conducting the transactions in a way that it appears to be legitimate or clean. That is the idea behind money laundering.
This whole topic of what is BSA is very in depth and could take much longer than what we have in this Compliance Clip, which is supposed to be three to five minutes. So if you're looking for more information on what BSA is, you might wanna check out our program, which is BSA Basics or BSA for beginners and those new to BSA. It takes just over an hour to complete and covers everything related to an overview of what BSA is. So take a look at that. It's found in our store at www.compliancecohort.com/store.
That's all I have for you today in this Compliance Clip.