“Treasury estimates that some advisers may manage billions of dollars ultimately controlled by sanctioned entities—entities that threaten our national interests.”

“Treasury’s decision to delay the IA AML Rule compliance date—and potentially revisit the rule’s substance—once again raises significant questions about the Administration’s plans to protect our financial system and the American people.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the National Security and International Trade and Finance Subcommittee, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raising concerns about Treasury’s decision to not only postpone the compliance date for its 2024 anti-money laundering rule (IA AML Rule) for investment advisers from 2026 to 2028 but also potentially weaken the substance of the final rule.

“The IA AML rule was designed to close a key vulnerability in U.S. anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements for the rapidly growing investment adviser and private fund industries,” the lawmakers wrote. “The decision to delay compliance leaves American national security and economic stability vulnerable.”

The lawmakers warned that: “As the industry continues to grow—with $144.6 trillion in assets under management in 2024, a 12 percent increase from 2023 alone—so do the risks it poses to American citizens, our economic and national security, and our democracy.”

“The Administration has already taken several steps to roll back illicit finance protections, including disbanding multiple Department of Justice teams tasked with protecting against money laundering and illicit finance and narrowing enforcement of U.S. foreign bribery laws,” wrote the lawmakers.

The lawmakers are seeking answers from Secretary Bessent no later than October 3, 2025 on which external parties drove the decision to postpone and reopen the IA AML rule, the steps the agency will take to counter money laundering without the rule in place, and the agency’s plans to revisit the rule.

For more information on the national security risks of failing to close illicit finance gaps in the investment adviser sector, see this 2024 Treasury Department report.

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