BSA compliance is the work a US bank, money services business or other covered firm does to meet its obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the 1970 law that forms the core of American anti-money-laundering rules. In practice the phrase is often written as "BSA/AML compliance", and the full explanation of compliance programs, controls and testing is in the AML Compliance entry.
A BSA program is commonly described as resting on five pillars: internal controls, independent testing, a designated BSA compliance officer, staff training, and customer due diligence, the last added by the 2016 customer due diligence rule. Firms must also keep records and file reports with FinCEN, chiefly the Currency Transaction Report (CTR) for cash transactions over $10,000 and the Suspicious Activity Report for possible crimes.
Banks are examined for BSA compliance by their federal banking regulator, while money services businesses are examined under authority delegated to the IRS and by state regulators.