ICBA: FinCEN should fix BSA thresholds, BOI collection

ICBA said community bankers strongly support the role of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network while recommending updates to beneficial ownership information collection and Bank Secrecy Act thresholds.

Details: In a statement for the record for today’s House Financial Services Committee subcommittee hearing on FinCEN, ICBA said:

• ICBA continues to oppose bank collection of BOI, an ineffective means of creating transparency and an unnecessary burden for community banks, and recommends that BOI be collected and verified at the time a legal entity is formed by either FinCEN or an appropriate agency.

• ICBA strongly supports the Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization Act (H.R. 1799), which would effectively implement a Government Accountability Office recommendation by raising the currency transaction reporting and Suspicious Activity Reporting thresholds to $30,000 and $10,000 respectively and index the CTR threshold for inflation every five years prospectively.

Past Advocacy:

• ICBA has repeatedly called for FinCEN to withdraw the requirement that banks collect BOI. The Treasury Department in March announced an interim final rule that removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act.

• ICBA in March expressed strong support for H.R. 1799 to raise reporting thresholds for currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports, saying CTR and SAR filings are a primary source of community bank compliance burden and expense, diverting resources that could be better directed toward community lending.