FinCEN highlights use of BSA reporting data

Financial Crimes Of Interest to Non-US Persons FinCEN Bank Secrecy Act Enforcement

On April 25, FinCEN released its year-in-review for FY 2022. The annual summary provided insights into the agency’s efforts to support law enforcement and national security agencies, as well as statistics from Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) filings. FinCEN reported that BSA data was used to advance several law enforcement missions, including in 36.3 percent of active complex financial crimes investigations, 27.5 percent of active public corruption investigations, and 20.6 percent of active international terrorism investigations. Additionally, FinCEN noted that in FY 2022 there were over 7,600 Section 314(b)-registered financial institutions. Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act allows registered entities to share information about financial activity with one another to help entities of all sizes identify and report suspicious activity. FinCEN further reported that 92 percent of domestic law enforcement agencies that query BSA data “find the resulting financial intelligence valuable to the detection and deterrence of illicit activity.”