On November 6, 2023, FinCEN and the BIS issued a new SAR key term to support financial institutions in reporting potential efforts to evade U.S. export controls beyond the Russia-related circumstances that were the focus of those prior two alerts. The new joint notice builds on the success of the two prior alerts issued jointly by the two agencies in generating suspicious activity reporting related to Russia-related export control evasion.

On November 3, 2023, FinCEN issued a press release to inform U.S. financial institutions that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that establishes international standards to combat money laundering, counter the financing of terrorism, and combat weapons of mass destruction proliferation financing (AML/CFT/CPF), has issued public statements updating its lists of jurisdictions with strategic AML/CFT/CPF deficiencies following its plenary meeting last month.  U.S. financial institutions should consider the FATF’s stance toward these jurisdictions when reviewing their obligations and risk-based policies, procedures, and practices.

On October 20, 2023, FinCEN issued an alert to assist financial institutions in identifying funding streams for the terrorist organization Hamas. FinCEN’s action is, according to their press release, a response to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on the people of Israel, wherein 1,000 innocent civilians, including citizens of the United States, were wounded, killed, or taken hostage.

On October 20, 2023, FinCEN announced the renewal and expansion of its Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) that require U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons behind shell companies used in all-cash purchases of residential real estate. The terms of the GTOs are effective beginning October 22, 2023, and ending on April 18, 2024.

On October 19, 2023, FinCEN announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that identifies international Convertible Virtual Currency Mixing (CVC mixing) as a class of transactions of primary money laundering concern. The NPRM highlights the risks posed by the extensive use of CVC mixing services by a variety of illicit actors throughout the world and proposes a rule to increase transparency around CVC mixing to combat its use by malicious actors including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). 

On October 19, 2023, the Federal Reserve Board issued an enforcement action and fined Metropolitan Commercial Bank, of New York, New York, approximately $14.5 million for violations of customer identification rules and for deficient third-party risk management practices relating to the bank's issuance of prepaid card accounts. The Board conducted an investigation of MCB’s issuance of general purpose reloadable prepaid cards with MovoCash, Inc.,  a former third-party program manager for MCB’s Global Payments Group, that identified deficiencies in the Bank’s third-party risk management and compliance with the Customer Identification Program under BSA.

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.