Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Prohibition on Correspondent Accounts for Foreign Shell Banks; Records Concerning Owners of Foreign Banks and Agents for Service of Legal Process

Issuing agencies

Abstract

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, without change, of a currently approved information collection found in existing Bank Secrecy Act regulations. Specifically, the regulations prohibit covered financial institutions from maintaining correspondent accounts for or on behalf of a foreign shell bank. The regulations require that a covered financial institution take reasonable steps to ensure that any correspondent account that it maintains in the United States for a foreign bank is not used by the foreign bank to indirectly provide banking services to a foreign shell bank. The regulations also mandate that a covered financial institution maintaining correspondent accounts in the United States for foreign banks retain records in the United States identifying: The owners of each such foreign bank whose shares are not publicly traded, unless the foreign bank files a Form FR-Y with the Federal Reserve Board identifying the current owners of the foreign bank; and the name and address of a person who resides in the United States who is authorized to serve as each such foreign bank's agent for service of legal process for records regarding each such correspondent account. Although no changes are proposed to the information collection, this request for comments covers a future expansion of the scope of the annual hourly burden and cost estimate associated with these regulations. This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.