Who has primary responsibility for enforcement of the BSA under the USA Patriot Act?

• A. Federal Reserve
• B. Department of the Treasury
• C. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
• D. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Answer: (B)

The main idea is that the Department of the Treasury leads BSA enforcement under the USA PATRIOT Act. This authority is exercised mainly through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which writes the BSA regulations, sets reporting requirements (like CTRs and SARs), and coordinates AML/CFT policy. Federal banking regulators such as the Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC play a supervisory role and enforce BSA compliance within the institutions they oversee, but they do so within the Treasury framework and often at the examiner level. In short, Treasury is the lead enforcement body, with other regulators implementing and enforcing within their regulated sectors as part of that overarching framework.