The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has announced that it intends to postpone the effective date of the final rule establishing anti-money laundering (AML) and suspicious activity report (SAR) filing obligations for registered investment advisers (RIAs) and exempt reporting advisers (ERAs) (the IA AML Rule or the Rule) and to revisit its scope at a future date. The Rule’s effective date, originally scheduled to be January 1, 2026, is now expected be extended to January 1, 2028.
The IA AML Rule as written would impose significant new regulatory requirements on RIAs and ERAs. The announcement suggests that FinCEN will revisit and possibly narrow those requirements, which FinCEN says must be “effectively tailored to the diverse business models and risk profiles” of investment advisers. The IA AML Rule has been criticized by some in the industry for imposing outsized regulatory obligations in a sector where the associated risks may be relatively low, particularly but not only for ERAs.
FinCEN also stated that it and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plan to revisit a proposed rule that would impose customer identification program (CIP) requirements on both RIAs and ERAs.
RIA and ERA firms should continue monitoring new proposals that may affect AML, SAR, and CIP requirements and their timelines for implementation.
