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Special Alert: FinCEN Publishes Long-Awaited Proposed Customer Due Diligence Requirements
On August 4, 2014, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM") that would amend existing Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) regulations intended to clarify and strengthen customer due diligence (“CDD”) obligations for banks, securities broker-dealers, mutual funds, and futures commission merchants and introducing brokers in commodities (collectively, “covered financial institutions”).
In drafting the modifications, FinCEN clearly took into consideration comments responding to its February 2012 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPRM”), as the current proposal appears narrower and somewhat less burdensome on financial institutions. Comments on the proposed rulemaking are due October 3, 2014.
Overview: Under the NPRM, covered financial institutions would be obligated to collect information on the natural persons behind legal entity customers (beneficial owners) and the proposed rule would make CDD an explicit requirement. If adopted the NPRM would amend FinCEN’s AML program rule (the four pillars) by making CDD a fifth pillar.
Click here to view the special alert.
FinCEN Proposes Customer Due Diligence Rule
On July 30, FinCEN released a proposed rule that would amend BSA regulations to clarify and add customer due diligence (CDD) obligations for banks and other financial institutions, including brokers or dealers in securities, mutual funds, futures commission merchants, and introducing brokers in commodities. The rule would not cover other entities subject to FinCEN regulations that are not already required to have a customer identification program (CIP)—e.g money services businesses—but FinCEN may extend CDD requirements in the future to these, and potentially other types of financial institutions. The proposed rule states that as part of the existing regulatory requirement to have a CIP, covered institutions are already obligated to identify and verify the identity of their customers. The proposed rule would add to that base CDD requirement, new requirements to: (i) understand the nature and purpose of customer relationships; and (ii) conduct ongoing monitoring to maintain and update customer information and to identify and report suspicious transactions. The proposed rule also would add a so-called beneficial ownership requirement, which would require institutions to know and verify the identities of any individual who owns at least 25% of a legal entity, or who controls the legal entity.
FinCEN emphasizes that nothing in the proposal is intended to limit the due diligence expectations of the federal functional regulators or in any way limit their existing regulatory discretion. To that end, the rule would incorporate the CDD elements on nature and purpose and ongoing monitoring into FinCEN’s existing AML program requirements, which generally provide that an AML program is adequate if, among other things, the program complies with the regulation of its federal functional regulator governing such programs. FinCEN does not believe that the new CDD requirements will require covered institutions to perform any additional activities or operations, but acknowledges the rule may necessitate revisions to written policies and procedures. FinCEN also recognizes that financial institutions will be required to modify existing customer onboarding processes to incorporate the beneficial ownership requirement. As such, FinCEN proposes an effective date of one year from the date the final rule is issued. Comments on the proposal are due 60 days from publication of the proposal in the Federal Register.
FinCEN Closer To Finalizing Customer Due Diligence Proposal
On July 14, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) concluded its review of a long-awaited FinCEN proposal to establish customer due diligence requirements for financial institutions, sending the rule back to FinCEN. In its spring 2014 rulemaking agenda, Treasury updated the timeline for the rule to indicate it could be proposed in July with a 60 day comment period. OIRA’s public records do not provide information about what, if any, changes OIRA sought or required prior to FinCEN finalizing the proposal. The public portion of the FinCEN rulemaking has been ongoing since February 2012 when FinCEN released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit comment on potential requirements for financial institutions to (i) conduct initial due diligence and verify customer identities at the time of account opening; (ii) understand the purpose and intended nature of the account; (iii) identify and verify all customers’ beneficial owners; and (iv) monitor the customer relationship and conduct additional due diligence as needed. FinCEN subsequently held a series of roundtable meetings, summaries of which it later published.
FinCEN Advisory Addresses Risks Presented By Citizenship-by-Investment Program
On May 20, FinCEN issued Advisory FIN-2014-A004, warning financial institutions about the risk of illicit financial activity conducted by individuals with passports from St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN), which allows individuals to obtain passports through a citizenship-through-investment program. The program offers citizenship to any non-citizen who either invests in designated real estate with a value of at least $400,000, or contributes $250,000 to the SKN Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation. FinCEN believes that illicit actors are using the program to obtain SKN citizenship in order to mask their identity and geographic background for the purpose of evading U.S. or international sanctions or engaging in other financial crime. FinCEN advises financial institutions to conduct risk-based customer due diligence to mitigate the risk that a customer is disguising his or her identity for such an illicit purchase. FinCEN further reminds institutions of SAR filing obligations related to known or suspected illegal activity and potential OFAC obligations.
International Financial Services Association Launches AML Working Group
On April 15, BAFT, an international financial services association for organizations engaged in international transaction banking, announced the creation of a new Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer Trade Finance Sound Practices working group. The group will focus on the needs of the transaction banking industry’s heightened focus on maintaining compliance with increasing regulatory expectations involving AML, combating the financing of terrorism, and KYC practices. The group will review “red flags” identified in different jurisdictions, identify common challenges, and develop best practices, which it will consolidate and publish for use by other trade practitioners.
OMB Reviewing Significant AML Proposed Rule
On April 11, the Treasury Department submitted to the OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) FinCEN’s long-awaited proposed rule to establish customer due diligence requirements for financial institutions. Under executive order, each agency is required to submit for regulatory review rules resulting from “significant regulatory actions,” and OIRA has 90 days to complete or waive the review. The public portion of the FinCEN rulemaking has been ongoing since February 2012 when FinCEN released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit comment on potential requirements for financial institutions to (i) conduct initial due diligence and verify customer identities at the time of account opening; (ii) understand the purpose and intended nature of the account; (iii) identify and verify all customers’ beneficial owners; and (iv) monitor the customer relationship and conduct additional due diligence as needed. FinCEN subsequently held a series of roundtable meetings, summaries of which it later published.
SWIFT Announces Development Of New KYC Compliance Registry
On March 4, SWIFT, the bank member-owned cooperative based in Belgium, announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with six of its major member banks to develop a central utility for the collection and distribution of standard information required by banks as part of their know your customer (KYC) due diligence processes. The KYC registry is intended to help banks manage KYC compliance challenges and reduce associated costs by providing bank users centralized access to details on their counterparties, while allowing participating banks to retain ownership of their own information and maintain control over which other institutions can view their data. SWIFT states that an initial working group will establish processes for providing information to the registry and documentation necessary to fulfill KYC requirements across multiple jurisdictions. The group expects more banks to join in the coming months.