Regulators: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network FinCEN overview

 Prerequisite:   Before you complain to regulators

As a sub-division of the U.S. Treasury department, FinCEN helps to regulate pretty much any financial institution that has the potential to launder national currency money or finance terrorism.  This includes banks, casinos, broker-dealers, and money transmitters.

Specifically FinCEN creates and monitors frameworks of how money is transmitted and then relays that information to other governmental agencies or law enforcement.    This is known as financial intelligence and FinCEN along with other country’s equivalent organizations are known as Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs).  And a big part of FinCEN’s policing work extends to the international community, since the US dollar is used as a de-facto world reserve currency.

One of the main reasons I thought the FinCEN was a regulator worth mentioning is the rise of virtual currencies…usually cryptocurrencies.   Well crypto exchangers operating in the USA are required to register as a Money Services Business (MSB).  And FinCEN keeps a database of MSBs which can be checked.   Now the standard disclaimer that the listing in the database is not a FinCEN/Treasury dept endorsement of that business.  But at least you can see if a crypto exchange is abiding by some basic BSA laws by staying registered.  There is an option to download an excel xls version of the complete database.   This might be preferred….and then you do the search using the “find” tool via Excel.

• The glossary was an interesting hidden gem that I came across.  It’s kind of like a summary of recent advisories and an attempt to define frequently used concepts combined.   Yeah, it’s more poorly organized than it sounds.   But some gems are there that provide insight into different financial transaction related fraud issues and FinCEN recommendations.    For example, they had a guide on “Bet on Currency” in regards to cash wagers at a casino.  These guys use acronyms so often, they have a page dedicated to keeping up with them.   I wonder if the US military has their own dedicated list somewhere.  

Another point of interest is the liaison work that is done to facilitate other financial regulators worldwide.   The equivalent gov’t organizations in other countries that work to investigate money transfer-related crimes (referred to as Financial Intelligence Units – FIUs) collaborate and or share information with each other via an organization known as the Egmond Group .  According to their official website, Egmond provides the technology and other tools for FIUs to share information securely to perform AML and anti-terrorism financing.   Without going into extensive detail, it seems like a round-about way of saying that big brothers around the world collaborate to ensure that the financial system “remains safe” from boogeyman money launderers.  Hmmm yet didn’t HSBC get caught laundering on several occasions with amounts >$100 Million USD?  And all that fine money that they pay….where does it ultimately come from?

#RegulatedFool

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