As part of a growing drive to improve the efficacy, efficiency and compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, and anti-money laundering requirements, Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting said he and other regulators are forming an interagency working group to update regulations. Speaking with journalists at a June 19 conference in Washington, Otting said banking regulators – including the OCC, the Fed and the FDIC – have submitted recommendations, including changing the reporting threshold for currency transactions, to the Treasury Department's FinCEN. The issue is also gaining traction on Capitol Hill. While the House Financial Services Committee has delayed a vote that had been scheduled for June 14 on the Counter-Terrorism and Illicit Finance Act (HR 6068), the full House on June 25 passed the Cooperate With Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act (HR 5783), which offers protection for financial institutions that cooperate with federal and other investigations, including keeping suspicious accounts open at the behest of law enforcement without raising regulatory red flags. And illicit finance was the subject of a June 20 hearing by the Senate Banking Committee's National Security Subcommittee that heard testimony from a former FBI Financial Crimes Program officer, a major bank's anti-money laundering director and the head of the Financial Integrity Network. "Our current AML system falls short in many regards," said Senator Benjamin Sasse (R-NE),subcommittee chairman.