Financial Crimes Enforcement Network July 29, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FinCEN is issuing this final rule to amend the Bank Secrecy Act (``BSA'') regulations applicable to Money Services Businesses (``MSB'') with regard to stored value. More specifically, this final rule amends the regulations by: renaming ``stored value'' as ``prepaid access'' and defining that term; deleting the terms ``issuer'' and ``redeemer'' of stored value; imposing suspicious activity reporting, customer information and transaction information recordkeeping requirements on both providers and sellers of prepaid access, and, additionally, a registration requirement on providers only; and exempting certain categories of prepaid access products and services posing lower risks of money laundering and terrorist financing from certain requirements. These changes address regulatory gaps that have resulted from the proliferation of prepaid innovations over the last twelve years and their increasing use as an accepted payment method.