FinCEN Touts Successful Use of BSA Data

In a Fiscal 2023 Year End Review, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") provided statistics on the collection and use of Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA") data.

Highlights from the report include:

• BSA Data Advances Law Enforcement Mission. FinCEN said BSA data was identified as a "critical element of its complex cases." FinCen reported that in FY23 "33.8% of FBI's active Complex Financial Crime investigations were directly linked to" Suspicious Activity Reports ("SARs") and Currency Transaction Reports ("CTRs").
• Reports Pursuant to the BSA. FinCEN received reports from 294,000 registered financial institutions ("FIs") and other e-filers.
• Concentration. The top 10 filers of SARs and CTRs were responsible for filing approximately "48% of all FY23 SARs" and "39% of all FY23 CTRs."
• BSA Section 314(a) and 314(b) Information Sharing Programs. BSA Section 314(a) "enables federal, state, local, and certain foreign law enforcement agencies, through FinCEN, to reach out to financial institutions to locate accounts and transactions of persons that are reasonably suspected based on credible evidence of terrorism or money laundering." FinCEN found 588 Section 314(a) requests from 71 law enforcement agencies. BSA Section 314(b) permits registered financial institutions to (i) share information with each other, (ii) identify money laundering or terrorist activity and (iii) report any identified suspicious activity to FinCEN. FinCEN found that there were over 7,790 Section 314(b) registered FIs and that 1,300 FIs were referenced 314(b) in SAR narratives.
• FinCEN's Law Enforcement Awards Program. FinCEN said that 1,876 BSA filings were reviewed in nominated cases and 37 of these cases were successfully prosecuted.
• "Portal Query Performance Measure Survey." FinCEN said it received 1,518 out of 14,100 responses from FinCEN Portal Query users. FinCEN said that 92% of respondents found the information valuable to the detection and deterrence of illicit activity.

FinCEN also reported that in FY2023, pursuant to Section 6206 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, published four Financial Trend Analyses, four Alerts and one Notice. The information contained in these communications derived from threat patterns and trend information from BSA filings. FinCEN also noted that in FY23 it met with other US regulators on the following concerns: (i) illicit activities involving Russia and North Korea; (ii) digital ecosystem innovation and generative AI; (iii) drug trafficking; and (iv) human smuggling.