Congress Must Now Pass the ENABLERS Act by the End of the Year

WASHINGTON, DC — The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition applauds today’s announcement by Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to the President, of the Biden Administration’s “full support” for the Establishing New Authorities for Business Laundering and Enabling Risks to Security (ENABLERS) Act. The ENABLERS Act would close dangerous loopholes in the U.S. anti-money laundering framework by empowering Treasury to require those that form companies, administer trusts, or manage money for a third party – such as accountants, lawyers, investment advisors, and other non-bank financial service providers that act as gatekeepers to the U.S. financial system – to adopt basic anti-money laundering protocols under the Bank Secrecy Act.

The White House’s announcement of support for the bill was made during remarks by Sullivan at the opening ceremony of the 2022 International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC), an annual conference bringing together thousands of stakeholders from around the world dedicated to the fight against global corruption.

“The United States has made important progress in recent years to update its domestic anti-money laundering policies toward mitigating its role in global corruption, including to pass and promulgate an initial rulemaking on the landmark Corporate Transparency Act. Yet the fact remains that the United States remains the world’s number one destination for criminals and kleptocrats to stash their ill-gotten gains,” said Erica Hanichak, Policy Director of the FACT Coalition. “Addressing the regulatory blindspots targeted by the ENABLERS Act that allow certain U.S. professionals to forgo common sense anti-money laundering obligations represents maybe the single biggest step toward protecting the U.S. economy and global democracy from the corrosive effects of corruption.”

“With full support from the White House, as well as endorsements by more than 100 national security, law enforcement, good governance, environmental, labor, and anti-corruption organizations, Congress must now pass the ENABLERS Act by the end of the year to finally shut the door on dirty money moving through the U.S. financial system.”