Financial Crimes Enforcement Network March 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In a Notice of Finding (NOF) published in the Federal Register on July 22, 2014, FinCEN found that reasonable grounds exist for concluding that FBME Bank Ltd. (FBME), formerly known as the Federal Bank of the Middle East Ltd., is a financial institution of primary money laundering concern pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Section 311). On the same date, FinCEN also published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to propose the imposition of a special measure authorized by Section 311 against FBME and opened a comment period that closed on September 22, 2014. On July 29, 2015, FinCEN published in the Federal Register a final rule imposing the fifth special measure, which the United States District Court for the District of Columbia subsequently enjoined before the rule's effective date of August 28, 2015. FinCEN is issuing this final rule imposing a prohibition on U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, FBME in place of the rule published on July 29, 2015.

This document withdraws FinCEN's finding that JSC CredexBank (``Credex''), renamed JSC InterPayBank (``InterPay''), is a financial institution of primary money laundering concern, 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 Credex, FinCEN has determined that Credex is no longer a primary money laundering concern that warrants the implementation of a special measure under Section 311. Elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, FinCEN is publishing a withdrawal of the related notice of proposed rulemaking that would have imposed two special measures against Credex.

This document withdraws FinCEN's notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to impose the fifth special measure regarding Banca Privada d'Andorra (``BPA''), pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (``Section 311''), codified at 31 U.S.C. 5318A. Because of material subsequent developments that have mitigated the money laundering risks associated with BPA, FinCEN has determined that BPA is no longer a primary money laundering concern that warrants the implementation of a special measure under Section 311. Elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, FinCEN is publishing a withdrawal of the related finding regarding BPA.