Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a Treasury Department bureau, was established in 1990, to enforce anti-money laundering laws and to help combat money laundering in the United States and elsewhere. FinCEN collects, analyzes, and exchanges information, provides intelligence reports and technological services, and implements the Bank Secrecy Act and other Treasury Department mandates. FinCEN provides information and analytical reports to national and international law enforcement agencies, to financial institutions, and to domestic policy makers. FinCEN employs specialists from areas such as intelligence, financial analysis, and information technology.

A major responsibility of FinCEN is oversight of the Bank Secrecy Act, a key tool in the monitoring of money laundering activities. The Bank Secrecy Act, enacted in 1970, was intended to limit secrecy of certain types of financial transactions, to prevent criminals from using financial institutions to convert funds from illicit sources into clean money, and to give the secretary of the treasury the authority to require banks and financial and nonbank financial institutions to keep specific records, file certain reports, for example, currency transaction reports (CTRs) and reports of international transportation of currency or monetary instruments, report cash transactions over $10,000, and it put into action anti-money laundering programs and compliance guidelines. Amendments in 1992 gave the secretary of the treasury the right to require suspicious transactions reports (SARs) from all financial institutions, and the authority to require all financial institutions to establish anti-money laundering training programs. In 1994, the Money Laundering Suppression Act (MLSA) provided for a single agency to take the SARs sent in; required specific types of negotiable instruments, transported across borders, to be reported; and required certain types of nonbank financial institutions, for example, money transmitters and check cashiers, to register with the Treasury Department. This MLSA is the main tool for regulating nonbank financial institutions. The Bank Secrecy Act has also been expanded to include both state-licensed and tribal gambling casinos and card clubs involving $10,000 or more in funds or assets. The institutions are also encouraged to voluntarily report suspicious transactions below $5,000.