All in Regulatory Update

On March 31, 2025, FinCEN issued an Alert on bulk cash smuggling and repatriation by Mexico-based Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). The Treasury, alongside FinCEN, is urging financial institutions to be vigilant in identifying and reporting transactions potentially related to the cross-border smuggling of bulk cash from the United States into Mexico and the repatriation of bulk cash into the U.S. and Mexican financial systems by these Mexico-based criminal organizations.

On March 26, 2025, the CFPB announced that it is seeking to vacate the settlement the CFPB extracted from Townstone back in 2024 after suing the nonbank retail-mortgage creditor for discriminatory lending practices and redlining. In its press release, the CFPB stated that after a thorough review, the Bureau is seeking to “make Townstone whole by returning the six-figure penalty they were forced to pay.”

On March 24, 2025, FinCEN issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions for the Geographic Targeting Order involving certain money services businesses in California and Texas on the Southwest Border. This is in relation to the March 11 GTO requiring all money services businesses located in 30 ZIP Codes across California and Texas to file additional Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) with FinCEN for transactions above $200 but not more than $10,000.