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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

FinCEN Proposes Imposing BSA Requirements on Crowdfunding Portals

Anti-Money Laundering FinCEN Bank Secrecy Act Broker-Dealer Combating the Financing of Terrorism

Securities

On April 4, FinCEN issued a proposed rule to amend the definitions of “broker or dealer in securities” and “broker-dealer” under the regulations implementing the BSA. Specifically, FinCEN proposed that the definitions be amended to “explicitly include funding portals that are involved in the offering or selling of crowdfunding securities pursuant to section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act of 1933.” Intended to help prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes, the amendments would require funding portals to implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure compliance with the BSA requirements currently applicable to brokers or dealers in securities. Comments on the proposal are due by June 3, 2016.