In brief
TRM Labs' Ari Redbord told a House subcommittee that the Bank Secrecy Act is "structurally incapable" of keeping pace with AI-enabled financial crime.
The hearing came two days after Trump signed an executive order expanding BSA customer due diligence rules to flag accounts tied to undocumented immigrants.
Witnesses were split between full repeal, targeted reform, and modernization with stronger information-sharing.
Crypto executives, policy researchers, and national security experts testified before a House subcommittee on Thursday on how to modernize anti-money laundering laws for an era of AI and digital assets.The House Financial Services Committee's National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Subcommittee held a hearing on Modernizing the BSA for Financial Crime in the 21st Century, revisiting the Bank Secrecy Act, the 1970 law that requires banks and financial institutions to report suspicious activity and large transactions.The hearing landed as crypto firms, banks, and civil liberties groups push to refocus the BSA on actionable intelligence over reporting volume, while the Trump administration broadens its reach over non-citizen customers.TRM Labs Global Head of Policy Ari Redbord, testifying before the Subcommittee, told lawmakers that North Korea stole over $2 billion in digital assets in 2025 and another $600 million in early 2026, while pig butchering networks stripped more than $35 billion from Americans last year.
