On September 29, 2023, the Department of the Treasury published through the Federal Register a Notice of information collection, that the Agency will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). The request for information is in relation to the BOIR Form. The public is invited to submit comments on this information collection request on or before October 30, 2023.

On September 28, 2023, FinCEN published through the Federal Register Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which seeks to amend the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rule to extend the deadline to file initial BOI reports for entities created or registered on or after the rule's effective date of January 1, 2024, and before January 1, 2025. While this rule likely won't affect financial institutions directly, it will have a direct impact on business entity customers.

On September 15, 2023, FinCEN assessed a $15 million civil money penalty against Bancrédito International Bank and Trust Corporation (Bancrédito) for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its implementing regulations. This is FinCEN’s first enforcement action against a Puerto Rican International Banking Entity (IBE), and includes the first violation for failure to implement and maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program also known as the “Gap Rule.”

On September 8, 2023, FinCEN issued an alert to highlight a prominent virtual currency investment scam known as “pig butchering.”  According to FinCEN’s press release, multiple U.S. law enforcement sources estimate victims in the United States have lost billions of dollars to these scams and other virtual currency investment frauds. 

On August 4, 2023, FinCEN announced that officials from FinCEN traveled to Mexico City to reinforce its continuing commitment to close collaboration with the Mexican government to combat illicit finance. On August 2, FinCEN hosted a cross-border roundtable on the shared priorities of combating fentanyl and other drug trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other predicate crimes. The dialogue was participated by U.S. and Mexican financial institutions, U.S. and Mexican regulators and financial intelligence units, and U.S. law enforcement.

FinCEN has updated its “SAR Filings by Industry” webpage to include data from 2022. In addition to this webpage, FinCEN has an interactive map and and Interactive SAR Stats which allow BSA professionals to analyze what types of suspicious activity are being reported in their areas. As this data allows specific sorting of the data, BSA professionals are able to sort by many different fields including primary regulator, county, industry, etc.

On August 2, 2023, the FFIEC, on behalf of its members, released updates to the following sections of the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual.

On July 19, 2023, the Federal Reserve Board issued a consent order against Deutsche Bank AG, its New York branch, and other U.S. affiliates. The consent order requires Deutsche bank to pay a $186 million fine based on unsafe and unsound practices and violations of the Board's 2015 and 2017 consent orders with Deutsche Bank relating to sanctions compliance and anti-money laundering controls.