Financial Crimes Enforcement Network – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FinCEN is inviting the public to nominate financial institutions, trade groups, and non-Federal regulators or law enforcement agencies for membership in the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group. New members will be selected for three-year membership terms.

FinCEN is publishing this final rule to clarify an exemption under the beneficial ownership information reporting rule that FinCEN published on September 30, 2022. This rule modifies the language exempting certain public utilities from the definition of "reporting company" in the beneficial ownership information reporting rule to more clearly implement the language of the exemption found in the Corporate Transparency Act.

This document withdraws FinCEN's finding that ABLV Bank AS (ABLV) is a financial institution of primary money laundering concern and the related notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to impose the fifth special measure regarding ABLV, pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (section 311). Because of material subsequent developments that have mitigated the money laundering risks associated with ABLV, FinCEN has determined ABLV is no longer a financial institution of primary money laundering concern that warrants the implementation of a special measure under section 311.

FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), is issuing a final rule to include certain investment advisers in the definition of "financial institution" under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), prescribe minimum standards for anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs to be established by certain investment advisers, require certain investment advisers to report suspicious activity to FinCEN pursuant to the BSA, and make several other related changes to FinCEN regulations. These regulations will apply to certain investment advisers who may be at risk for misuse by money launderers, terrorist financers, or other actors who seek access to the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes and who threaten U.S. national security.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, without change, of existing information collection requirements found in Bank Secrecy Act regulations that require dealers in foreign exchange and broker-dealers in securities to retain originals or copies of specified account or transaction records, and that require dealers in foreign exchange to secure and maintain records of the taxpayer identification number of persons for whom a transaction account is opened or a line of credit is extended. This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, without change, of existing information collection requirements found in Bank Secrecy Act regulations that require casinos to develop and implement written anti-money laundering programs. This notice does not address requirements proposed under section 6101(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. Paperwork and respondent burden for those requirements are addressed in a separate notice of proposed rulemaking. This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

FinCEN is issuing this final rule to prohibit covered U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of Al-Huda Bank, a foreign financial institution based in Iraq found to be of primary money laundering concern pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. The rule further requires covered U.S. financial institutions to take reasonable steps not to process transactions for the correspondent account of a foreign banking institution in the United States if such a transaction involves Al-Huda Bank. It also requires covered institutions to apply special due diligence to their foreign correspondent accounts that is reasonably designed to guard against their use to process transactions involving Al-Huda Bank.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, without change, of existing information collection requirements found in Bank Secrecy Act regulations that require banks, savings associations, credit unions, certain non-federally regulated banks and trust companies (collectively hereinafter "banks"), brokers-dealers, mutual funds, futures commission merchants, and introducing brokers in commodities, to develop and implement customer identification programs designed to allow the financial institutions to form a reasonable belief that they know the true identity of each of their customers. This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

The Department of the Treasury and the SEC are jointly issuing a proposed rulemaking implementing the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 with regard to certain investment advisers. If, as proposed in a separate rulemaking, certain investment advisers are included in the definition of "financial institution" under the Bank Secrecy Act, the Secretary of the Treasury and the SEC will be required to jointly prescribe a regulation that, among other things, requires investment advisers to implement reasonable procedures to verify the identities of their customers.

FinCEN, in consultation with staff at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) (collectively, the "Agencies"), seeks information and comment from interested parties regarding the Customer Identification Program (CIP) Rule requirement for banks to collect a taxpayer identification number (TIN), among other information, from a customer who is a U.S. person, prior to opening an account (the "TIN collection requirement"). Generally, for a customer who is an individual and a U.S. person ("U.S. individual"), the TIN is a Social Security number (SSN). In this request for information (RFI), FinCEN specifically seeks information to understand the potential risks and benefits, as well as safeguards that could be established, if banks were permitted to collect partial SSN information directly from the customer for U.S. individuals and subsequently use reputable third-party sources to obtain the full SSN prior to account opening. FinCEN seeks this information to evaluate and enhance its understanding of current industry practices and perspectives related to the CIP Rule's TIN collection requirement, and to assess the potential risks and benefits associated with a change to that requirement. This notice also serves as a reminder from FinCEN, and staff at the Agencies, that banks must continue to comply with the current CIP Rule requirement to collect a full SSN for U.S. individuals from the customer prior to opening an account ("SSN collection requirement"). This RFI also supports FinCEN's ongoing efforts to implement section 6216 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, which requires FinCEN to, among other things, identify regulations and guidance that may be outdated, redundant, or otherwise do not promote a risk-based anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, without change, of an existing information collection relating to records of certain domestic transactions. Specifically, if the Secretary of the Treasury finds that reasonable grounds exist for concluding that additional recordkeeping and/or reporting requirements are necessary to carry out the purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act, or to prevent evasions thereof, the Secretary may issue an order that imposes certain additional recordkeeping and reporting requirements on one or more domestic financial institutions or nonfinancial trades or businesses in a geographic area. These orders are commonly referred to as geographic targeting orders (GTOs). This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), is issuing this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to include certain investment advisers in the definition of ``financial institution'' under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), prescribe minimum standards for anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs to be established by covered investment advisers, require covered investment advisers to report suspicious activity to FinCEN pursuant to the BSA, and make several other related changes to FinCEN regulations. FinCEN is proposing this action to address gaps in the existing AML/CFT regulatory framework in this sector. The proposed regulations will apply to investment advisers that may be at risk for misuse by money launderers, terrorist financers, or other actors who seek access to the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes via investment advisers and threaten U.S. national security.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comment on a renewal, without change, of existing information collection requirements relating to reports of transactions in currency. Under Bank Secrecy Act regulations, financial institutions are required to report transactions in currency of more than $10,000 using FinCEN Form 112 (the currency transaction report, or CTR). This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

FinCEN invites all interested parties to comment on the proposed information collection associated with requests made to FinCEN, by certain persons, for beneficial ownership information, consistent with the requirements of the Beneficial Ownership Information Access and Safeguards final rule. The details included in the information collection are listed below. This request for comment is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

FinCEN is promulgating regulations regarding access by authorized recipients to beneficial ownership information (BOI) that will be reported to FinCEN pursuant to section 6403 of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), enacted into law as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act), which is itself part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA). The regulations implement the strict protocols required by the CTA to protect sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) reported to FinCEN and establish the circumstances in which specified recipients have access to BOI, along with data protection protocols and oversight mechanisms applicable to each recipient category. The disclosure of BOI to authorized recipients in accordance with appropriate protocols and oversight will help law enforcement and national security agencies prevent and combat money laundering, terrorist financing, tax fraud, and other illicit activity, as well as protect national security.

FinCEN is amending the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rule (the ``Reporting Rule'') to extend the filing deadline for certain BOI reports. Under the Reporting Rule prior to this amendment, entities created or registered on or after the rule's effective date of January 1, 2024, had to file initial BOI reports with FinCEN within 30 calendar days of notice of their creation or registration. This amendment extends that filing deadline from 30 calendar days to 90 calendar days for entities created or registered on or after January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2025, to give those entities additional time to understand the new reporting obligation and collect the necessary information to complete their filings. Entities created or registered on or after January 1, 2025, will continue to have 30 calendar days to file their BOI reports with FinCEN.

FinCEN is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, that proposes requiring domestic financial institutions and domestic financial agencies to implement certain recordkeeping and reporting requirements relating to transactions involving convertible virtual currency (CVC) mixing.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, FinCEN is proposing to establish a new system of records titled Treasury/ FinCEN .004 for information collected by FinCEN in connection with the implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The CTA requires certain entities to report to FinCEN identifying information associated with the entities themselves, their beneficial owners, and their company applicants (together, beneficial ownership information or BOI). The CTA also authorizes FinCEN to disclose BOI to authorized recipients, subject to strict protocols on security and confidentiality.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on a proposed renewal, without change, of an information collection found in existing Bank Secrecy Act regulations. Specifically, FinCEN invites comment on a renewal of existing information collection requirements for reports of currency in excess of $10,000 received by a trade or business or by court clerks as bail. These transactions are reported on Form 8300. This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comment on a renewal, without change, to an information collection requirement finalized on November 8, 2017, imposing a special measure against Bank of Dandong as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern. This request for comments is being made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, without change, to an information collection requirement contained in FinCEN's regulations and FinCEN Form 107Registration of Money Services Business (RMSB). Under the regulations, money services businesses (MSBs) must register with FinCEN using FinCEN Form 107, renew their registration every two years, and maintain a list of their agents. This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

As part of a continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comment on a renewal, without change, to information collection requirements finalized on March 15, 2006, imposing a special measure against the Commercial Bank of Syria, including its subsidiary, Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank (collectively, the ``Commercial Bank of Syria''), as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern. This request for comments is being made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

FinCEN is publishing this final rule to reflect inflation adjustments to its civil monetary penalties as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended. This rule adjusts certain maximum civil monetary penalties within the jurisdiction of FinCEN to the amounts required by that Act.

FinCEN invites all interested parties to comment on the report that will be used to collect beneficial ownership information, as required by the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements final rule that was published on September 30, 2022. The details included in the information collection are listed below. This request for comment is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.