Department of Treasury January 4, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is issuing this proposed Bank Secrecy Act regulation to implement section 312 of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001 (``Act''), which requires U.S. financial institutions to conduct enhanced due diligence with regard to correspondent accounts established, maintained, administered, or managed for certain types of foreign banks. We originally published a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to implement section 312 in its entirety on May 30, 2002. Due to the significant number of issues raised during the comment period, we have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to issue another notice of proposed rulemaking (``Proposal'') to address issues associated with the enhanced due diligence provisions. A final rule implementing all other provisions of section 312 is published elsewhere in this separate part of the Federal Register.

The OCC, Board, FDIC and OTS (``we'' or ``the Agencies'') are reviewing our regulations to identify outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulatory requirements pursuant to the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA). Today, we request your comments and suggestions on ways to reduce burden with respect to rules regarding Prompt Corrective Action and the Disclosure and Reporting of CRA-Related Agreements, which are in the Capital and Community Reinvestment Act categories of regulations. All comments are welcome. We specifically invite comment on the following issues: whether statutory changes are needed; whether the regulations contain requirements that are not needed to serve the purposes of the statutes they implement; the extent to which the regulations may adversely affect competition; whether the cost of compliance associated with reporting, recordkeeping, and disclosure requirements, particularly on small institutions, is justified; whether any regulatory requirements are inconsistent or redundant; and whether any regulations are unclear. This is our last request for comment on categories of regulations in the first 10-year cycle of regulatory review under EGRPRA. We will analyze the comments received and propose burden-reducing changes to our regulations where appropriate. Some of your suggestions for burden reduction might require legislative changes. Where legislative changes would be required, we will consider your suggestions in recommending appropriate changes to Congress.