Banks Getting Another Three Months To Comply with Wire Transfer Rules

WASHINGTON - Banks will have an extra three months - until April 1 - to comply with new wire transfer rules, federal regulators announced this week.

Also, in response to numerous questions from the industry, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Federal Reserve Board proposed clarifications of two wire transfer rules announced earlier this year.

The proposal conforms the rules' definitions of "bank" and "financial institution" with the ones given in the Uniform Commercial Code. Banks had complained that the wire transfer rules' original definitions of those terms excluded banks outside the United States. Though this was in keeping with the Bank Secrecy Act, it narrowed the scope of the commercial code's definitions and thus caused confusion.

John Byrne, senior federal counsel for the American Bankers' Association, welcomed the changes, saying they a show a willingness on the part of the Fed and the network to respond to the concerns of banks throughout the country.

"This just shows that the agencies will listen and take information seriously from banks," Mr. Byrne said. "They don't just work overnight and decide one way or the other."

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