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Dec. 3,2012 – Comments are due Jan. 25 on proposed changes to Bank Secrecy Act rule definitions of "funds transfer" and "transmittal of funds" aimed at preserving coverage despite the Dodd-Frank Act's revision to the Electronic Funds Transfer Act on remittance transfers.

Before the Dodd-Frank Act, the EFTA's definition of funds transfers and transmittals of funds applied generally to funds transfers initiated electronically to or from a consumer's account. The Dodd-Frank Act revised this, expanding "remittance" to cover all consumer remittances from the U.S. to entities in foreign countries. An EFTA-defined "remittance transfer" previously wasn't subject to BSA.

The proposed rule announced last week is to ensure that international wire transfers sent by consumers through financial institutions, and cash-based transmittals of funds sent by a consumer through money transmitters, remain under the scope of the anti-money laundering law.

• Proposed rule