WASHINGTON—U.S. financial institutions may be required to provide more customer information to the Treasury Department’s financial crimes office as it ramps up its focus on foreign money-laundering threats. Separately, NAFCU is offering advice on complying with changes to a FinCEN program.
As CUToday.info reported, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this year established a new division to oversee foreign and domestic investigations. The Global Investigations Division, created in August, was previously part of FinCEN’s enforcement office.
“That FinCEN carved out the investigations unit as a stand-alone office highlights one of the agency’s key priorities in the year ahead,” reported the Wall Street Journal, citing reports from former FinCEN officials.
“FinCEN is expected to use its targeted investigative powers more frequently, including its authority under the Patriot Act to prohibit foreign banks from opening correspondent accounts with U.S. financial institutions, lawyers say. Other powers include the ability to request information from banks on customer transactions, and to require additional disclosures on transactions made in certain U.S. cities that FinCEN deems as risky,” the Journal stated.
“It signals that FinCEN will want to use the tools under the global investigations division with more frequency,” Stephanie Brooker, a former director of enforcement at the agency who is now co-chair of the financial institutions practice at law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, told the Journal.
FinCEN Information Sharing Update
Meanwhile, as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) works to improve information sharing, NAFCU has detailed sharing procedures and recent updates to the 314(a) program fact sheet.
NAFCU Compliance Specialist Alma Calcano said that section 314(a) of the USA PATRIOT Act "encourages information sharing between law enforcement and financial institutions regarding individuals, entities, and organizations engaged in or reasonably suspected of engaging in terrorist activity or acts of money laundering."
Under the provision, law enforcement can request information from financial institutions, which require them to determine if any of their records match the information and report it back to FinCEN. Calcano also said credit unions should compare the subject lists posted through the web-based 314(a) Secure Information Sharing System (SISS) to all account holders of record during the previous 12 months (or for transactions involving non-account holders for the prior six months), and report any matches back to FinCEN.
Other Details
Calcano said CUs should review the FFIEC BSA/AML Examination Manual for more details on sharing procedures and what credit unions need to do when they receive an information request.
FinCEN also recently updated its 314(a) fact sheet, which Calcano said provides additional information on the filing process, criteria for money laundering requests, and how feedback from financial institutions is used.