During the past few weeks, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released three notices affecting the filing of Form TD F 90-22.1 “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts” (“FBAR”), which are discussed below. In general, each U.S. person who has a financial interest in or signature or other authority over any foreign financial account, including bank, securities, or other types of financial accounts in a foreign country, if the aggregate value of these financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year, must file an FBAR with the Department of the Treasury on or before June 30th of the succeeding year.

On May 31, 2011, FinCEN issued Notice 2011-1 in which it announced a one-year extension of the 2010 FBAR deadline from June 30, 2011 to June 30, 2012 for certain individuals having only signature authority over entity accounts. FinCEN is reviewing the application of certain exceptions set forth in its final FBAR regulations and may also be assessing whether there is any need for additional reporting of foreign financial accounts by such individuals where the direct or indirect owner of the accounts is a company traded on a domestic national exchange or certain regulated entities such as a bank examined by federal regulators or certain institutions registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).