The American Bankers Association (ABA) is calling for the creation of a new government office to coordinate Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requirements and compliance.

The new “gatekeeper” office’s main responsibilities would be to develop BSA policy, oversee BSA compliance and enforcement, issue BSA-related regulations and facilitate cooperation between the financial institutions, law enforcement and regulatory agencies involved in AML efforts.

The call for this new agency stems from recommendations the ABA unveiled recently titled The New Framework for Partnership, which the organization positions as a program designed to “help the next administration fight financial crime.” The ABA has said that U.S. AML policy, which is set jointly by banking agencies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the U.S. Treasury Department, includes too many players with conflicting agendas. Furthermore, the ABA argues, the emphasis of AML efforts should be on crime fighting instead of reporting.

While it wouldn’t be as dramatic a reorganization as the one that occurred in 2002, after the 9/11 attacks, when 22 federal departments were incorporated into what became the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the ABA proposal would require some federal departmental changes.

With their focus on the housing crisis and recent bailout, consideration of AML measures has fallen to a distant second on U.S. lawmakers’ legislative priority list.

To win quick approval, perhaps the ABA can tie their proposal to a schedule for it to produce tangible results — such as increasing the amount of laundered money seized in a year. With something that legislators could cite as proof of their concern for taxpayers, its fast-tracked passage would be like money in the...you know.