On 11 March 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) to require money services businesses (MSBs) located in specified zip codes of California and Texas to file currency...more
To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal and state events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week...more
On February 7, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed a new rule to increase reporting requirements for nonfinanced, entity-purchased residential real estate. FinCEN...more
FinCEN announced on October 20 that, once again, it is extending the Geographic Targeting Order, or GTO, which requires U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons behind so-called “shell companies” used in...more
In This Issue. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve), in response to an increased number of inquiries and access requests from companies with fintech and other narrow purpose charters, invited...more
Second of Two Posts on Evolving Issues Regarding Real Estate and Money Laundering - In our last post, we blogged on a major regulatory tool to combat the use of real estate as a potential vehicle for money laundering: the...more
In its 2020 National Strategy for Combating Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing (“2020 Strategy”), the U.S. Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) has laid out its AML and money laundering enforcement priorities. Last week, we...more
Last Thursday, FinCEN Deputy Director Jamal El-Hindi appeared at the 20th annual Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Financial Crimes Conference hosted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) in New...more
On June 12, 2019, Kenneth A. Blanco, Director of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), provided remarks at the NYU Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement that underscored the agency’s...more
Breaking from its recent practice of making public announcements about Geographic Targeting Orders, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) last month quietly extended its real estate GTOs for...more
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an advisory to alert financial institutions of widespread public corruption in Venezuela and the methods Venezuelan senior political figures...more
In its latest effort to combat money laundering within the real estate sector, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has issued a new Geographic Targeting Order (“GTO”) broadening its scrutiny of shell companies...more
This article is Part I of a series in which we address the U.S. government’s attempts to combat money laundering in real estate transactions. This week the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network...more
FinCEN announced today that it is renewing the existing Geographical Targeting Orders (GTOs) issued in July 2016 that require all title insurance companies to identify and report on the natural persons behind shell companies...more
2016 was a busy year for developments in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the criminal money laundering statutes, forfeiture, and related issues. In part one of our year-in-review, we discuss six key...more
Building on early successes, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) announced new rules targeting buyers of high-end real estate properties. Earlier this year, FinCEN adopted rules focusing on high-end...more
In the wake of the "Panama Papers" – the unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from a Panamanian law firm that revealed thousands of names and addresses linked to offshore companies – the White House has announced several...more
On April 21, 2015, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a geographic targeting order, an anti-money laundering device focused on trade-based money laundering schemes used by drug cartels,...more
On April 21, 2015 – after months of speculation by those in the Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering compliance community – the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) in...more