FinCEN underestimating burden of info-sharing requests: ICBA

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network underestimates the regulatory burden of information sharing requests between banks and law enforcement under the USA PATRIOT Act, ICBA told the agency.

Section 314(a) Requests: Responding to FinCEN’s proposed renewal of Bank Secrecy Act information sharing regulations, ICBA said the proposal improperly implies that there is little to no burden associated with Section 314(a) requests.

Inaccurate Estimates: Specifically, FinCEN since 2010 has estimated that researching and reporting each subject in 314(a) requests takes roughly four minutes. According to FinCEN, all “financial institutions have well established processes, and in most cases automated processes, in place” to conduct searches.

Hours-Long Process: Those estimates are off base, ICBA said in a letter to the agency. In fact, ICBA members said researching each subject on a 314(a) request can take several hours at community banks with smaller staffs and without automated processes, particularly for institutions seeking to minimize false-positive matches.

READ ICBA LETTER