Financial Crimes Enforcement Network March 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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Laundering Act of 2020, which requires FinCEN to, among other things, identify regulations and guidance that may be outdated, redundant, or otherwise do not promote a risk-based anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.