The U.S. Treasury Department has signalled sweeping changes to the country’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regime, with a vision designed to prioritise outcomes and embrace technology.
The announcement came during the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) Assembly Conference in Las Vegas, where Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley outlined the department’s modernisation plan, claims Workfusion.
Hurley said the goal is to make AML/CFT systems more efficient and effective, providing law enforcement and national security agencies with the most relevant intelligence to combat financial crime. “AML/CFT programs should deliver better outcomes by providing those customers with the most useful information, not by overwhelming the system with noise,” Hurley said. He emphasised that compliance teams should treat law enforcement as the “customers” of their work.
This vision also promises relief for financial institutions. Hurley acknowledged that the Treasury must do more to communicate which information regulators truly value, helping firms reduce wasted effort and focus their resources on high-priority threats.
Technology, particularly artificial intelligence, plays a central role in this strategy. Hurley described AI as a “force multiplier”, praising financial institutions that have successfully reduced false positives while speeding up valuable intelligence sharing. He argued that such innovation should be “celebrated, not written up”. Advanced tools, he added, can also highlight weaknesses in manual processes, giving compliance teams a clearer path to improvement.
The reforms would also change how compliance is assessed. Hurley said the Treasury intends to shift away from subjective examiner opinions toward objective measures of output, focusing on whether institutions deliver what law enforcement needs. “If we measure you by how well you objectively deliver what our customers need, rather than by how closely you conform to an examiner’s subjective opinions, it will allow you to apply your experience and creative talent to invent new and better solutions,” he said.
Resource allocation is another key priority. Hurley argued that compliance leaders should measure their effectiveness by how well they identify and report suspicious activity, rather than the size of their compliance teams. “Compliance takes real resources. That’s why prioritisation matters. Limited resources should be allocated to the most pressing threats,” he told the ACAMS audience.
The message for financial institutions is clear: those that fail to evolve will risk falling behind. Regulators are expected to view outdated, manual-first programmes as less capable of addressing modern threats. Hurley’s comments underscored the urgency for firms to modernise by adopting AI and other well-governed technologies.
AI is already gaining traction across the sector. WorkFusion’s technology, for example, is reportedly in use at 10 of the top 20 global banks to streamline AML compliance and reduce risk. The Treasury’s new vision suggests such adoption is no longer optional, but a necessary step to ensure compliance programmes remain both effective and credible.
Copyright © 2025 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
