Notice2025-09310
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Reports of Transactions With Foreign Financial Agencies
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
May 23, 2025
Issuing agencies
Treasury DepartmentFinancial Crimes Enforcement Network
Abstract
As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, without change, of certain existing information collection requirements found in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations. Specifically, the regulations authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, as appropriate, to promulgate regulations requiring specified financial institutions to file reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of certain transactions with designated foreign financial agencies. Although no changes are proposed to the information collection itself, this request for comments covers proposed changes in the methods that FinCEN uses to estimate reporting and recordkeeping burdens. This request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 99 (Friday, May 23, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 99 (Friday, May 23, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22157-22163]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-09310]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal;
Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Reports of Transactions With
Foreign Financial Agencies
AGENCY: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Treasury.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and
respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal,
without change, of certain existing information collection requirements
found in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations. Specifically, the
regulations authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, as appropriate, to
promulgate regulations requiring specified financial institutions to
file reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of
certain transactions with designated foreign financial agencies.
Although no changes are proposed to the information collection itself,
this request for comments covers proposed changes in the methods that
FinCEN uses to estimate reporting and recordkeeping burdens. This
request for comments is made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995.
DATES: Written comments are welcome and must be received on or before
July 22, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Federal E-rulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Refer to Docket Number
FINCEN-2025-0006 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control
number 1506-0055.
<bullet> Mail: Policy Division, Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network, P.O. Box 39, Vienna, VA 22183. Refer to Docket Number FINCEN-
2025-0006 and OMB control number 1506-0055.
Please submit comments by one method only. Comments will generally
become a matter of public record. For this reason, please do not
include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as
sensitive personal information or proprietary information. A comment
about the burden posed to a financial institution by a specific
regulation requiring the reporting of certain transactions with
designated foreign financial agencies, issued under the general
regulation that is the subject of this notice, but that does not
describe in detail the specific regulation or the reporting requirement
imposed by that specific regulation, will not be considered to contain
confidential information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FinCEN's Regulatory Support Section by
submitting an inquiry at <a href="http://www.fincen.gov/contact">www.fincen.gov/contact</a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Statutory and Regulatory Provisions
The legislative framework generally referred to as the BSA consists
of the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970,\1\ as
amended by the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of
2001 (USA PATRIOT Act),\2\ and other legislation, including the Anti-
Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act).\3\ The BSA is codified at 12
U.S.C. 1829b, and 1951-1960; 31 U.S.C. 5311-5314, and 5316-5336,
including notes thereto; with implementing regulations at 31 CFR
chapter X.
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\1\ Title II of Public Law 91-508, 84 Stat. 1118 (Oct. 26,
1970).
\2\ Public Law 107-56, 115 Stat. 272 (Oct. 26, 2001).
\3\ The AML Act was enacted as Division F, sections 6001-6511,
of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Public Law 116-283, 134 Stat. 3388 (Jan.
1, 2021).
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The BSA authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) to,
inter alia, require financial institutions to keep records and file
reports that are determined to have a high degree of usefulness in
criminal, tax, or regulatory matters, risk assessments or proceedings,
or in intelligence or counter-intelligence activities, including
analysis, to protect against terrorism, and to implement anti-money
laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs and
compliance procedures.\4\ The Secretary has delegated to the Director
of FinCEN (Director) the authority to administer the BSA.\5\
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\4\ See 31 U.S.C. 5311(1)-(2).
\5\ Treasury Order 180-01 (Reaffirmed Jan. 14, 2020); see also
31 U.S.C. 310(b)(2)(I) (providing that the Director of FinCEN shall
``[a]dminister the requirements of subchapter II of chapter 53 of
this title, chapter 2 of title I of Public Law 91-508, and section
21 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, to the extent delegated
such authority by the Secretary.'').
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The Secretary is authorized to require any ``resident or citizen of
the United States or a person in, and doing business in, the United
States, to keep records, file reports, or keep records and file
reports, when the resident, citizen, or person makes a transaction or
maintains a relation for any person with a foreign financial agency.''
\6\ The term ``foreign financial agency'' \7\ (FFA) applies to an
action outside the United States of a ``financial agency,'' which the
statute defines as ``a person acting for a person . . . as a financial
institution, bailee, depository trustee, or agent, or acting in a
similar way related to money, credit, securities, gold, a transaction
in money, credit, securities or gold, or a service provided with
respect to money, securities, futures, precious metals, stones and
jewels, or value that substitutes for currency.'' \8\ The Secretary is
also authorized to prescribe exemptions to the reporting requirement
and to prescribe other matters the Secretary considers necessary to
carry out 31 U.S.C. 5314.\9\ The regulations implementing these
authorities to require reports of transactions with FFAs are found at
31 CFR 1010.360.
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\6\ 31 U.S.C. 5314(a).
\7\ 31 U.S.C. 5312(b)(2).
\8\ See 31 U.S.C. 5312(a)(1) as amended by 6102 (d)(1)(A) of the
AML Act. The definition of financial agency exempts a person acting
for a country, a monetary or financial authority acting as a
monetary or financial authority, or an international financial
institution of which the United States Government is a member.
\9\ See 31 U.S.C. 5314(b)(1) and (5).
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Briefly, 31 CFR 1010.360(a) generally authorizes the Secretary,
when the Secretary deems appropriate, to promulgate specific
regulations (FFA Regulations) under which specified financial
institutions \10\ must file reports of certain transactions with
designated FFAs.\11\ An FFA Regulation must
[[Page 22158]]
designate one or more of the following categories of information to be
reported by the specified financial institution(s):
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\10\ 31 CFR 1010.100(t).
\11\ If such a regulation is issued as a final rule without
notice and opportunity for public comment, then a finding of good
cause for dispensing with notice and comment in accordance with 5
U.S.C. 553(b) must be included in the regulation. If the regulation
is not published in the Federal Register, then any financial
institution subject to the regulation must be named and personally
served or otherwise given actual notice in accordance with 5 U.S.C.
553(b). If a financial institution is given notice of a reporting
requirement by means other than publication in the Federal Register,
the Secretary may prohibit disclosure of the existence or provisions
of that reporting requirement to the designated FFA(s) and to any
other party. See 31 CFR 1010.360(a).
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<bullet> checks or drafts, including traveler's checks, received by
a respondent financial institution for collection or credit to the
account of a designated FFA, sent by the respondent financial
institution to a foreign country for collection or payment, drawn by
the respondent financial institution on a designated FFA, drawn by a
designated FFA on the respondent financial institution, including the
following information: name of maker or drawer; name of drawee or
drawee financial institution; name of payee; date and amount of
instrument; and names of all endorsers; \12\
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\12\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(b)(1)(i) through (v).
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<bullet> transmittal orders received by a respondent financial
institution from a designated FFA or sent by respondent financial
institution to a designated FFA, including all information maintained
by that institution pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.410 and 1020.410; \13\
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\13\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(b)(2).
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<bullet> loans made by respondent financial institution to or
through a designated FFA, including the following information: name of
borrower; name of person acting for borrower; date and amount of loan;
terms of repayment; name of guarantor; rate of interest; method of
disbursing proceeds; and collateral for loan; \14\
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\14\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(b)(3)(i) through (viii).
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<bullet> commercial paper received or shipped by the respondent
financial institution, including the following information: name of
maker; date and amount of paper; due date; certificate number; and
amount of transaction; \15\
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\15\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(b)(4)(i) through (v).
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<bullet> stocks received or shipped by respondent financial
institution, including the following information: name of corporation;
type of stock; certificate number; number of shares; date of
certificate; name of registered holder; and amount of transaction; \16\
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\16\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(b)(5)(i) through (vii).
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<bullet> bonds received or shipped by respondent financial
institution, including the following information: name of issuer; bond
number; type of bond series; date issued; due date; rate of interest;
amount of transaction; and name of registered holder; \17\
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\17\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(b)(6)(i) through (viii).
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<bullet> certificates of deposit received or shipped by respondent
financial institution, including the following information: name and
address of issuer; date issued; dollar amount; name of registered
holder; due date; rate of interest; certificate number; and name and
address of issuing agent.\18\
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\18\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(b)(7)(i) through (viii).
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In issuing FFA Regulations, the Secretary must prescribe: a
reasonable classification of financial institutions subject to or
exempt from a reporting requirement; a foreign country to which a
reporting requirement applies if the Secretary decides that applying
the requirement to all foreign countries is unnecessary or undesirable;
the magnitude of transactions subject to a reporting requirement; and
the kind of transaction subject to or exempt from a reporting
requirement.\19\
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\19\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(c)(1) through (4).
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FFA Regulations may prescribe the manner in which the information
is to be reported. However, the Secretary may authorize a designated
financial institution to report in a different manner if the
institution demonstrates to the Secretary that the form of the required
report is unnecessarily burdensome on the institution as prescribed;
that a report in a different form will provide all the information the
Secretary deems necessary; and that submission of the information in a
different manner will not unduly hinder the effective administration of
31 CFR chapter X.\20\
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\20\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(d).
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Pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360(e), the Secretary: (i) in issuing FFA
Regulations must consider the need to avoid impeding or controlling the
export or import of monetary instruments and the need to avoid
burdening unreasonably a person making a transaction with a designated
FFA; (ii) must not issue an FFA Regulation for the purpose of obtaining
individually identifiable account information concerning a customer, as
defined by the Right to Financial Privacy Act,\21\ where that customer
is already the subject of an ongoing investigation for possible
violation of the BSA, or is known by the Secretary to be the subject of
an investigation for possible violation of any other Federal law; and
(iii) may issue an FFA Regulation requiring a financial institution to
report transactions completed prior to the date it received notice of
the reporting requirement. However, with respect to completed
transactions, a financial institution may be required to provide
information only from records required to be maintained pursuant to the
requirements of 31 CFR chapter X, or any other provision of state or
Federal law, or otherwise maintained in the regular course of
business.\22\ All records that are required to be retained by chapter X
shall be retained for a period of five years, including those records
required to be created under 31 CFR 1010.360.\23\
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\21\ 12 U.S.C. 3401 et seq.
\22\ See 31 CFR 1010.360(e)(1) through (3).
\23\ 31 CFR 1010.430(d).
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II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) \24\
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\24\ Public Law 104-13, 109 Stat. 163 (May 22, 1995), codified
at 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).
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Title: Reports of transactions with foreign financial agencies (31
CFR 1010.360).
OMB Control Number: 1506-0055.
Form Number: Not applicable.
Abstract: FinCEN is issuing this notice to renew the OMB control
number for regulations requiring reports of transactions with
designated FFAs.
Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit institutions, and
non-profit institutions.
Type of Review: Renewal without change of a currently approved
information collection.
Frequency: As required.
Estimated Number of Potential Respondents: 46,158 domestic
financial institutions.
As described above, 31 CFR 1010.360(a) authorizes the Secretary,
when appropriate, to promulgate regulations requiring specified
financial institutions, as defined in 31 CFR 1010.100(t), to file
reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs. Table 1, below,
presents FinCEN's estimate of the total population of entities so
defined and its distribution by definitional categories.
Table 1--Distribution of Financial Institutions Covered by This Notice,
by Type of Financial Institution
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Number of
Financial institution type \a\ entities
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Bank \b\................................................ \c\ 9,384
Bank with a Federal Functional Regulator (FFR)...... 8,989
[[Page 22159]]
Bank without an FFR................................. 395
Broker or dealer in securities (broker-dealer) \d\...... \e\ 3,306
Money Services Business \f\............................. \g\ 28,456
Dealer in Foreign Exchange \h\...................... \i\ 4,974
Check Casher \j\.................................... \k\ 22,773
Issuer/Seller of Traveler's Checks \l\.............. \m\ 2,801
Issuer/Seller of Money Orders \n\................... 14,295\o\
Provider or Seller of Prepaid Access \p\............ \q\ 3,985
Money Transmitter \r\............................... \s\ 17,944
U.S. Postal Service \t\............................. \u\ 0
Telegraph Company \v\................................... \w\ 0
Casino or Card Club \x\................................. \y\ 1,292
Person subject to supervision by any State or Federal 0\aa\
Bank Supervisory Authority \z\.........................
Futures Commission Merchants and Introducing Brokers in \cc\ 956
Commodities \bb\.......................................
Mutual Fund \dd\........................................ \ee\ 2,764
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Total............................................... 46,158
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\a\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t) (definition of financial institution).
\b\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(1); see also 31 CFR 1010.100(d) (definition
of bank).
\c\ This includes 4,490 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-
insured depository institutions (including national banks, state banks
that are members of the Federal Reserve System, state-chartered non-
member banks, and insured U.S. branches of foreign banks, i.e.,, all
federally regulated banks) according to the FDIC's quarterly data
summary for Q4 2024, and 4,499 National Credit Union Administration
(NCUA)-insured credit unions (including federal credit unions and
state-chartered credit unions with NCUA insurance, i.e.,, all
federally regulated credit unions) according to NCUA's quarterly
credit union data summary for Q4 2024. The Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System Master Account and Services Database contains
data on financial institutions that utilize Federal Reserve Bank
financial services, including those with no FFR. FinCEN used this data
to identify 395 banks and credit unions with no FFR that are utilizing
Federal Reserve Bank financial services.
\d\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(2).
\e\ This estimate is based on Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
data on active broker-dealers which listed 3,306 active broker-dealers
registered with the SEC as of Apr. 29, 2025. See SEC, Company
Information About Active Broker-Dealers, available at <a href="https://www.sec.gov/foia-services/frequently-requested-documents/company-information-about-active-broker-dealers">https://www.sec.gov/foia-services/frequently-requested-documents/company-information-about-active-broker-dealers</a>.
\f\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(3); see also 31 CFR 1010.100(ff) (definition
of money services business).
\g\ The definition of MSB (31 CFR 1010.100(ff)) covers both principal
money services businesses (MSBs) and agents. The topline value for all
MSBs represents the average number of uniquely identifiable registered
MSBs with indicia of ongoing operations as of the three year-ends 2022-
2024, and primarily includes only principal MSBs required to register
with FinCEN. FinCEN believes that the reporting and recordkeeping
obligations this regulation imposes on MSBs will fall overwhelmingly
on principals rather than their agents, but FinCEN is interested in
any comments the public may have on this position. FinCEN has
estimated that the number of agent MSBs is approximately 229,161 and
invites public comment on this figure as well. See FinCEN, Agency
Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal; Comment Request;
Renewal Without Change of Regulations Requiring Records To Be Made and
Retained by Financial Institutions, Banks, and Providers and Sellers
of Prepaid Access, 89 FR 65971 (Aug. 13, 2024).
\h\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(1).
i This value represents the number of uniquely identifiable registered
MSBs with indicia of ongoing operations as of year-end 2024 that self-
identified as either ``Currency Dealer or Exchanger'' (FinCEN Form
107, Code 407) or ``Dealer in Foreign Exchange'' (FinCEN Form 107,
Code 415). Registrants may be members of multiple category types. The
estimate is derived from FinCEN's publicly available MSB data as of
Apr. 28, 2025.
\j\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(2).
\k\ This value represents the number of uniquely identifiable registered
MSBs with indicia of ongoing operations as of year-end 2024 that self-
identified as ``Check Casher'' (FinCEN Form 107, Code 408).
Registrants may be members of multiple category types. The estimate is
derived from FinCEN's publicly available MSB data as of Apr. 28, 2025.
\l\ See 31 CFR 10101.100(ff)(3).
\m\ This value represents the number of uniquely identifiable registered
MSBs with indicia of ongoing operations as of year-end 2024 that self-
identified as either ``Issuer of Travelers Checks'' (FinCEN Form 107,
Code 401) or ``Seller of Travelers Checks'' (FinCEN Form 107, Code
402). Registrants may be members of multiple category types. The
estimate is derived from FinCEN's publicly available MSB data as of
Apr. 28, 2025.
\n\ See 31 CFR 10101.100(ff)(3).
\o\ This value represents the number of uniquely identifiable registered
MSBs with indicia of ongoing operations as of year-end 2024 that self-
identified as either ``Issuer of Money Orders'' (FinCEN Form 107, Code
404) or ``Seller of Money Orders'' (FinCEN Form 107, Code 405).
Registrants may be members of multiple category types. The estimate is
derived from FinCEN's publicly available MSB data as of Apr. 28, 2025.
\p\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(4)(i)-(iii), (7)(i)-(ii).
\q\ This value represents the number of uniquely identifiable registered
MSBs with indicia of ongoing operations as of year-end 2024 that self-
identified as either ``Seller of Prepaid Access'' (FinCEN Form 107,
Code 413) or ``Provider of Prepaid Access'' (FinCEN Form 107, Code
414). Registrants may be members of multiple category types. The
estimate is derived from FinCEN's publicly available MSB data as of
Apr. 28, 2025.
\r\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(5).
\s\ This value represents the number of uniquely identifiable registered
MSBs with indicia of ongoing operations as of year-end 2024 that self-
identified as ``Money Transmitter'' (FinCEN Form 107, Code 409).
Registrants may be members of multiple category types. The estimate is
derived from FinCEN's publicly available MSB data as of Apr. 28, 2025.
\t\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(6).
\u\ FinCEN does not expect the U.S. Postal Service, as defined in 31 CFR
1010.100(ff)(6), to incur any recordkeeping or reporting obligations
in connection with this rule.
\v\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(4).
\w\ As an estimate of uniquely registered, potentially affected
entities, FinCEN expects this category to contain no additional
persons or organizations not already included in other counts,
particularly as money transmitters.
\x\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(5)-(6)
\y\ Estimate based on the American Gaming Association (AGA) ``State of
the States,'' available at <a href="https://www.americangaming.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/AGA-State-of-the-States-2024.pdf">https://www.americangaming.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/AGA-State-of-the-States-2024.pdf</a>.
\z\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(7).
[[Page 22160]]
\aa\ It is unclear to FinCEN at this time whether any entities exist in
this category that, for purposes of being counted towards unique
potentially affected parties that could incur burdens associated with
regulations issued pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360, are not already
captured by concurrent status in another category of financial
institution under the 31 CFR 1010.100(t) definition. To the extent
that additional data can better inform this estimate, public comment
including provision of such data is invited.
\bb\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(8-9).
\cc\ The number of futures commissions merchants as of May 2025 was
obtained from data available at NFA Membership and Registration,
available at <a href="https://www.nfa.futures.org/registration-membership/membership-and-directories.html">https://www.nfa.futures.org/registration-membership/membership-and-directories.html</a>. This estimate may include some
entities registered in both categories, but FinCEN believes this
figure to be small. According to the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission (CFTC), as of Mar. 31, 2025, there are 63 registered
futures commissions merchants. See CFTC, Financial Data For CFMs,
available at <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/financialfcmdata/index.htm">https://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/financialfcmdata/index.htm</a>.
\dd\ See 31 CFR 1010.100(t)(10).
\ee\ According to the SEC, as of the fourth quarter of 2024, in 2024
there were 2,764 open-end registered investment companies that report
on Form N-CEN. (<a href="https://www.sec.gov/dera/data/form-ncen-data-sets">https://www.sec.gov/dera/data/form-ncen-data-sets</a>).
While the entities in Table 1 are subject to FFA Regulations as
described above, FinCEN typically issues FFA Regulations to a
significantly smaller subset of the eligible population. From 2022 to
2025, FinCEN generally issued FFA Regulations to banks and broker-
dealers as defined in Table 1. Among these, FinCEN required reports
from an average of 15 unique institutions per year. FinCEN has applied
historical data on FFA Regulations to estimate the number of
respondents per year. The estimated number of expected respondents per
year is based on the average number of respondents per FFA Regulation
issued over the three-year period from 2022 to 2025 multiplied by the
average number of FFA Regulations issued per year over the same period.
Estimated Number of Expected Respondents: 40 domestic financial
institutions, annually on average.\25\
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\25\ Because the same respondent may be subject to reporting
requirements under more than one issued regulation in the same
calendar year, the estimated number of expected respondents may
exceed the number of unique entities to whom reporting and
recordkeeping burdens would accrue. See infra discussion below.
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FinCEN is revising its estimate of expected respondents upward to
reflect an increase in the quantity of FFA Regulations issued and an
increase in the average number of financial institutions directed to
respond to each such FFA Regulation since the most recent previous OMB
control number renewal. In the three calendar-year period between 2019
and 2022, FinCEN issued four FFA Regulations to an average of nine
covered financial institutions per regulation.\26\ During the analogous
three-year period between 2022 and 2025, FinCEN issued 11 FFA
Regulations (about four per year) to an average of ten covered
financial institutions per regulation.
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\26\ See FinCEN, ``Agency Information Collection Activities;
Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Reports
of Transactions With Foreign Financial Agencies'', 87 FR 1479 (Jan.
11, 2022), n. 10 and 11.
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Estimated Total Annual Responses: 40 responses.\27\
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\27\ The estimated number of annual responses is based on the
expectation that each newly issued regulation would engender one
response per respondent, consisting of three reports (one initial
and two subsequent), and is based on the average number of
regulations issued per calendar year over the most recent three
years multiplied by the average number of respondents per regulation
issued during the same period. See discussion below.
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FinCEN is also revising the structure of its burden estimates to
enhance comparability and tractability across the activities a covered
financial institution is expected to undertake in compliance with 31
CFR 1010.360. The downward revision in the estimated total annual
responses in this renewal (40), as compared to the most recent previous
estimate (84), does not reflect an expected decrease in responses, but
rather a change in what a `response' is intended to represent.
In formulating its estimates of reporting and recordkeeping burdens
for this OMB control renewal, FinCEN anticipates that each FFA
Regulation will require information from one or more respondents who
would consequently incur incremental reporting and recordkeeping
obligations unique to the regulation. Each respondent would be required
to provide FinCEN with a response in the form of a report, or reports,
with respect to each of the FFAs identified in the regulation. In prior
renewals, FinCEN has referred to, and treated each of the reports
provided to comply with an issued regulation as an individual response,
and because the number of reports and the time-period covered by each
report required has historically varied by regulation issued, this made
the exercise of mapping respondents to responses to per-response burden
for purposes of cost estimations less tractable and less likely to
meaningfully represent the manner in which respondents view and
operationalize their compliance activities. While the historical
analysis below retains individual reports as the fundamental unit of
analysis, for purposes of estimating PRA burdens, FinCEN is employing a
standardized model that treats the sum total of reports a respondent
provides to FinCEN as one response, composed of three notional reports,
one that captures a more extensive, costly ``initial report,'' and
represents all follow-on reporting as two ``subsequent reports'' of
shorter length and lower associated costs (i.e., ``subsequent reports''
after the initial report).
In calendar years 2022-2024, FinCEN issued a total of 11 FFA
Regulations--approximately four per year. The FFA Regulations required
that financial institutions respond with information on one to 308 FFAs
per request, with an average of 50 FFAs per regulation.
Four annual FFA Regulations multiplied by 50 FFAs per regulations
equals 200 FFAs per year per respondent. During this period, there was
one FFA Regulation that included 308 FFAs, which is significantly
larger than the number of FFAs per regulation when compared to other
FFA Regulations issued during the same period. Excluding that instance,
the average number of FFAs per regulation was approximately 25 (24.4).
FinCEN believes that instance to be an outlier. However, to maintain a
conservative estimate, FinCEN has retained the higher figure of 50 FFAs
per regulation.
Although FFA Regulations require about 200 reports per respondent
per year, each response requires multiple reports that are sent at
different times. The initial report will include transactions that
occurred over a specified ``look-back'' period. Each subsequent report
will include transactions that have occurred since the initial report
(if it is the first subsequent report) or since the most recent prior
report (if it is not the first subsequent report). In general, initial
reports are more burdensome because they typically require more data
and initial research. Across the 11 FFA Regulations issued during the
three-year period from 2022-2025, seven have been completed,\28\ and
the resulting reports contained an average of approximately ten million
total rows of data, with the initial report containing an average of
approximately 60 percent of this volume.
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\28\ Several FFA Regulations from 2024 and 2025 are still
ongoing.
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[[Page 22161]]
During the three-year period from 2022 to 2025, the average look-
back period per request was 737 days, which is approximately 24 months.
FinCEN assesses that this is representative of the duration of the
look-back period in future requests.\29\ FinCEN estimates that the
initial report, requiring a look-back over an average two-year period,
will take approximately 16 hours (two business days) for initial
research, approval by management, and reporting (i.e. transmission),
which includes setting up a template for subsequent reporting.
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\29\ This range can vary, particularly when ``renewing'' an FFA
Regulation. In such cases, FinCEN asks respondents to ``look-back''
over a shorter period, generally one to three months to the last
collection on the associated FFAs. In such cases, initial reporting
burden will be smaller. FinCEN applies a conservative estimate for
the purposes of estimating burden here, assuming FFAs that are the
subject of a regulation are initial FFA Regulations with no
immediate precedent.
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Over the same period, the number of subsequent reporting periods
per FFA Regulation ranged from seven to 14, with an average of ten. The
subsequent reports were always required over a period of 180 days.
However, beginning in 2025 and for future FFA Regulations, FinCEN
intends to require a smaller number of subsequent reporting periods,
with as few as two per regulation, as appropriate. This approach will
result in an average number of three reports per regulation under this
framework: the initial report (including look-back), and two subsequent
reports. FinCEN estimates that each subsequent report (an expected
average of two in total) will take approximately two hours (one hour
for data gathering and one hour for approval and reporting).
Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden: 40,500 hours, as set
out in Table 2, below.
FinCEN considers the primary burden to be associated with the
preparation of required reports, which it anticipates may potentially
involve multiple stages of processing and review by respondents and/or
their need to access multiple data systems, depending on the scope or
complexity of the regulation or the nature of a given FFA.
Generally, the information required to be reported pursuant to an
FFA Regulation is basic information that a domestic financial
institution must already maintain to comply with current BSA
recordkeeping requirements. For example, a domestic financial
institution sending or receiving transmittal orders (funds transfers)
with a designated FFA would have access to the information required to
be reported. The information required to be reported pursuant to an FFA
Regulation falls into one or more of the following categories: (i)
checks or drafts; (ii) transmittal orders; (iii) loans; (iv) commercial
paper; (v) stocks; (vi) bonds; and (vii) certificates of deposit.
Although FFA Regulations may concern any of these types of
transactions, in general, over the past three years, FinCEN has only
promulgated regulations associated with funds transfers. As noted
above, FinCEN will specify the form and method for reporting and
typically provides a reporting schedule to each specified financial
institution. If a specified financial institution does not have any
reportable transactions, that information must be reported to FinCEN.
FinCEN also requires that filers maintain records of data reported
pursuant to FFA Regulations. The FFA information is typically reported
by uploading a comma-separated value file spreadsheet through FinCEN's
Secure Information Sharing System, which allows the filer to save an
electronic version of the report and satisfy the recordkeeping
requirement. FinCEN estimates that the recordkeeping requirement will
take five minutes on average.
Table 2 provides a summary of the total expected annual burden
hours for all FFA Regulations.
Table 2--Burden Associated With Each Portion of the Annual PRA Estimate
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expected
number of Expected Expected Average Total
Activity FFA number of frequency burden annual
regulations respondent per hours per burden
issued respondent provision hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filing initial report(s) \a\ of certain 4 10 1 800 32,000
transactions with designated FFAs \b\.........
Filing subsequent reports of certain 2 100 8,000
transactions with designated FFAs.............
Complying with recordkeeping requirements that 3 \d\ 4 500
apply to reports \c\..........................
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Total...................................... ........... ........... ........... ........... 40,500
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\a\ The burden calculations in this table contemplate that the average number of FFAs per regulation issued is
50, each of which would require its own report, and would thereby incur the following burden hours per report:
16 (initial report), 2 (subsequent reports), and 1/12 (recordkeeping).
\b\ The filing of an initial report includes the applicable look-back period and includes the burden associated
with operationalizing the reporting format specified by FinCEN.
\c\ Records associated with the reports produced in response to regulations issued pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360
are subject to the requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430.
\d\ Rounded to the nearest whole number (four) from approximately 4.2 (50 x 1/12 = ~ 4.167).
In the previous renewal of this OMB control number, FinCEN revised
its estimate of burden in response to comments received,\30\ which
described a range of required response times for FFA Regulations of
varying complexity.\31\ In that renewal, FinCEN proposed three
categories of FFA Regulation: simple regulations (25% of total request,
taking seven hours total per response on average), typical regulations
(50% of total requests, taking 100 hours total per response on
average), and complex regulations (25% of total requests, taking 360
hours per response on average). The weighted average response time for
these regulation categories is 141.75 hours in total. Between 2019 and
2021 (the period before the comment letter was submitted), FinCEN FFA
Regulations sought information on an average of seven FFAs per
regulation. As discussed above, FinCEN has also historically
[[Page 22162]]
required seven subsequent reports before the recent change (where going
forward, FinCEN expects to only require two subsequent reports in most
FFA Regulations). Using this methodology in combination with the
revised time estimates laid out in Table 2, the initial report for the
past period (2022-2025) would be estimated to require 112 hours (16
hours per 7 FFAs, conducted one time) and the subsequent reports are
estimated to take 98 hours (two hours per 7 FFAs, conducted seven times
on average), for a total of 210 hours on average per FFA Regulation.
However, because subsequent reports were more frequent during this
period, and therefore involved smaller data files, the corresponding
subsequent report time for this period would be closer to one hour per
FFA (instead of two hours per FFA). Applying this equivalence results
in a total estimated average time of 161 hours per FFA Regulation
during 2022-2025, which is a close approximation of the weighted
average time per FFA Regulation from the previous renewal.
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\30\ See FinCEN, ``Agency Information Collection Activities;
Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Reports
of Transactions With Foreign Financial Agencies,'' 87 FR 1479 (Jan.
11, 2022). See also the information collection request documents,
including the supporting statement for the 2022 renewal at <a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=202203-1506-001">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=202203-1506-001</a>.
\31\ See the public comment in response to the 2022 renewal at
<a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=202203-1506-001">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=202203-1506-001</a>.
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Using the figures from Table 2, the average total time per request
anticipated by this renewal is 1,000 hours (an initial report taking 16
hours per FFA for 50 FFAs on average, plus two subsequent reports
taking two hours per FFA for 50 FFAs on average). This increase is
largely the result of the previous period (2022-2025) including several
highly complex requests involving significantly more FFAs than were
included in prior years' FFA Regulations. As discussed above, during
this period there was an FFA Regulation that included 308 FFAs.
Excluding that instance, the average number of FFAs per FFA Regulation
was approximately 25 (24.4). While this previous period may therefore
be exceptional, and therefore of limited predictive value for future
expectations, FinCEN is not removing outliers from its estimates to
take a more conservative approach to assessing the burden of issuing
regulations. Using the figure of 25 FFAs per regulation results in an
expected average total time per regulation of 500 hours, which is
approximately equivalent to the upper end of the typical range
described by the commenter for the 2019-2021 period.
Estimated Total Annual Recordkeeping Cost: The estimated total
annual PRA cost is $4,860,000, as set out in Table 3.
To estimate the costs associated with the annual PRA burden hours,
FinCEN is utilizing a fully loaded composite hourly wage rate of
$120.07, or rounded to the nearest dollar, $120.00.\32\ The total
estimated cost of the annual PRA burden is reflected in Table 3 below:
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\32\ The wage rate applied here is a general composite hourly
wage ($85.55), scaled by a private-sector benefits factor of 1.42
($120.07 = $85.55 x 1.42), that incorporates the mean wage data
provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) associated with the
six occupational codes (11-1010: Chief Executives; 11-3021: Computer
and Information Systems Managers; 11-3031: Financial Managers; 13-
1041: Compliance Officers; 23-1010: Lawyers and Judicial Law Clerks;
43-3099: Financial Clerks, All Other) for each of the nine groupings
of NAICS industry codes that FinCEN determined are most directly
comparable to its eleven categories of covered financial
institutions as delineated in 31 CFR parts 1020-1030. See BLS,
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Tables, ``May 2023--
National industry-specific and by ownership,'' available at <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm">https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm</a>. The benefit factor is 1 plus the
benefit/wages ratio. As of June 2023, Total Benefits = 29.4 and
Wages and Salaries = 70.6 (29.4/70.6= 0.42) based on the BLS'
Private Industry Workers Series data. See BLS, News Release,
``Employer Costs for Employee Compensation--June 2023,'' available
at <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_09122023.pdf">https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_09122023.pdf</a>.
Because many employers provide non-wage benefits (e.g., insurance,
paid leave), the private sector benefit is applied to reflect the
total cost to the employer.
Table 3--Estimated Total Cost of Annual PRA Burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Activity \a\ Burden hours Wage rate Total cost
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filing initial reports of certain transactions with designated 32,000 $120 $3,840,000
FFAs...........................................................
Filing subsequent reports of certain transactions with 8,000 960,000
designated FFAs................................................
Complying with the recordkeeping requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430 500 60,000
-----------------------------------------------
Total annual cost........................................... .............. .............. 4,860,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\a\ See respective activities in Table 2.
Under the PRA, FinCEN as a Federal agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of
information unless the collection of information displays a valid OMB
control number. Records required to be retained under the BSA must be
retained for five years.\33\
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\33\ See 31 CFR 1010.430(d).
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Requests for Comment: Comments submitted in response to this notice
will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval. All
comments will become a matter of public record.
General Request for Comments--Comments are invited on: (1) whether
the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance
of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall
have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of FinCEN's estimates of the
burden of the collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (4)
ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on
respondents, including through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information technology; and (5) estimates
of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and
purchase of services to provide information.
Additional Requests for Comment--In connection with a variety of
initiatives FinCEN is undertaking to implement the AML Act, FinCEN
intends to conduct, in the future, additional assessments of the PRA
burden associated with BSA requirements. To assist with those
activities, FinCEN is also requesting comments in response to the
following additional questions:
(1) As noted above, FinCEN data indicates that initial reporting
volume requires significantly more research and templating than the
subsequent reports. FinCEN estimated 16 hours for initial reports and
two hours each for subsequent reports. Does this distribution of
expected burden hours reflect how responses to FFA Regulations are
executed? If not, how long does it take a firm on average to provide an
initial report and each subsequent report? Are there any factors that
affect this time burden that would improve FinCEN's estimates of burden
or costs?
(2) FinCEN's burden analysis recognizes that there may be
technology costs associated with reporting and storing transaction
data. Are these incremental costs readily quantifiable? If so, how much
are they expected to vary by respondent? Do they differ in
[[Page 22163]]
relative or absolute value for smaller respondents?
Andrea M. Gacki,
Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
[FR Doc. 2025-09310 Filed 5-22-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-02-P
</pre></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on May 23, 2025.
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