The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network today issued an updated fact sheet to clarify how financial institutions can share information with each other about suspected fraud under the provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.
The guidance is intended to promote greater information sharing, including in real time, and clarifies that a financial institution may share information about activity involving suspected fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing or other specified unlawful activities, and that it may share that information with any other financial institution eligible to participate in FinCEN’s section 314(b) program to identify illicit financial activity, according to FinCEN. This guidance was last updated in December 2020.
The document also includes examples of the types of information related to fraud and other criminal activity that financial institutions can share under section 314(b), including video surveillance footage, cyber-related data, such as IP addresses.
“When you see something and say something, you are serving the public by helping keep Americans safe,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during an event with Texas bankers in Houston. “The information in your purview can help stop a cartel financier, disrupt a money laundering network, uncover labor exploitation or protect taxpayers from fraud.”
