Does the SEC have independent authority to interpret and enforce the Bank Secrecy Act?

QUESTION PRESENTED In enacting and amending the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Congress vested the Secretary of the Treasury with the authority to administer, interpret, and enforce a comprehensive regime, including the requirement that financial institutions file suspicious activity reports (SARs) for transactions meeting certain criteria. The Treasury Department has never delegated its SAR-enforcement authority to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC, however, has decided that it can interpret and enforce the BSA’s SAR requirements under its own standards, with a lower mens rea requirement and with harsher penalties than the BSA prescribes. In asserting independent power to enforce the BSA, the SEC cites its broad authority under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78q(a)(1), to make rules governing the records and reports that broker-dealers must produce and keep. The question presented is: Does the SEC’s assertion of independent authority to interpret and enforce the BSA contravene Congress’s decision to entrust enforcement of the BSA’s comprehensive regime to the Treasury Department, a politically accountable executive agency?