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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

FinCEN requests comments on renewal of the OMB control number

Financial Crimes Agency Rule-Making & Guidance FinCEN Federal Register OMB Bank Secrecy Act Of Interest to Non-US Persons

Financial Crimes

On January 11, FinCEN issued a notice in the Federal Register soliciting comments on the renewal of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number assigned to the regulation requiring reports of transactions with foreign financial agencies (FFAs). According to the notice, the regulation in the Bank Secrecy Act authorizes the Treasury Secretary “to promulgate regulations requiring specified financial institutions to file reports with [FinCEN] of certain transactions with designated [FFAs].” Although no changes are proposed to the information collection itself, the notice gives stakeholders an opportunity to comment on existing regulatory requirements and related burden estimates under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). The notice also proposes for review and comment a methodology to expand the scope of future estimates for purposes of the PRA to account for cost and time when a financial institution must also report on multiple prior (“backward-looking”) and future (“forward-looking”) transactions with a designated FFA, thus “intending to be more granular in the estimates of resources expended to comply with these regulatory requirements.” Comments must be received by March 14, 2022.