FinCEN

The ruling further complicates an already complicated area — the law's mandate around beneficial ownership information reporting.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Tuesday proposed a rule to include investment advisors in the compliance regime under the Bank Secrecy Act, aiming to close regulatory gaps exploited by criminals.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an alert Thursday on avoiding business relationships with sanctioned Israeli settler groups in the West Bank, an effort that comes as the White House is pushing sanctions on foreign actors involved in destabilizing the region.

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network fined a New York credit union employee $100,000 Wednesday in connection with a scheme to launder $1 billion using armored trucks and the credit union's Fed master account.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday the agency's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has received over 100,000 entries for its beneficial ownership information registry, and will set additional regulations to address money-laundering risks in real estate transactions early this year.

The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network launched its new database identifying U.S. business owners pursuant to the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act Monday, giving existing companies one year to file reports on their true owners and new companies 90 days after their creation to comply.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule on beneficial ownership information ahead of a deadline to start reporting this data on January 1, 2024, with revisions to address concerns from lawmakers and banking advocates.

Both parties agree the registry's rules need to be more targeted, while Democrats decried a Republican push to cut the agency's funding.

Led by House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., Republican lawmakers asked the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to develop a plan to make sure small businesses can come into compliance with its new beneficial ownership rule.

The only way for Fincen to assure that banks have the tools to identify illicit shell companies is for the agency to verify the information in its new beneficial ownership database.

Amid the clamor over the agency's new beneficial ownership database, banks want FinCEN to withdraw the rule.

Authorities gained from Russian sanctions legislation helped law enforcement build the case against Hong Kong-based exchange.

Rules being considered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network would needlessly hinder banks seeking to do due diligence on their customers.

The acting director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Himmamauli Das, said the so-called access rule of the Corporate Transparency Act will be released by the end of the year.

While the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has finalized some Corporate Transparency Act rules, the timetable is unclear for regulations involving customer due diligence or database access for banks.

Acting Director Himamauli Das acknowledged concerns from Democratic lawmakers that Fincen was moving too slowly to implement beneficial ownership rules but said the agency "will likely continue to do so, because our budget situation has required us to make significant trade-offs among competing priorities.”

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed standards to determine which companies must report their beneficial owners under a law enacted in January. Banks hope the new requirements will free them of the burden of collecting true-owner information about their customers.

Prosecutors say Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards leaked over 50,000 documents, including 2,000 suspicious activity reports, related to payments involving former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign chairman.

The Treasury secretary previewed President Biden's budget by urging lawmakers to fund the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's establishment of a beneficial ownership regime.

As Fincen implements an anti-money-laundering law requiring businesses to add their beneficial owners to a new database, bankers worry they'll still be on the hook to provide that information on behalf of customers for some time.