[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 247 (Wednesday, December 23, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 84104-84105]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-28431]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal; 
Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Bank Secrecy Act Regulations 
Requiring Reports of Certain Domestic Transactions

AGENCY: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Treasury.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and 
respondent burden, FinCEN invites comments on the proposed renewal, 
without change, of a currently approved information collection found in 
existing Bank Secrecy Act regulations. Specifically, if the Secretary 
of the Treasury finds that reasonable grounds exist for concluding that 
additional recordkeeping and/or reporting requirements are necessary to 
carry out the purposes of Bank Secrecy Act, or prevent evasion thereof, 
the Secretary may issue an order that imposes certain additional 
recordkeeping and reporting requirements on one or more domestic 
financial institutions or nonfinancial trades or businesses in a 
geographic area. This request for comments is made pursuant to the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Written comments are welcome, and must be received on or before 
February 22, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
     Federal E-rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Refer to Docket Number 
FINCEN-2020-0019 and the specific Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
control number 1506-0056.
     Mail: Policy Division, Financial Crimes Enforcement 
Network, P.O. Box 39, Vienna, VA 22183. Refer to Docket Number FINCEN-
2020-0019 and OMB control number 1506-0056.
    Please submit comments by one method only. Comments will also be 
incorporated into FinCEN's review of existing regulations, as provided 
by Treasury's 2011 Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules. 
Comments will generally become a matter of public record. For this 
reason, please do not include in your comments information of a 
confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or 
proprietary information. Given the nature of GTOs and their law 
enforcement purposes, any information that concerns confidential 
matters involving specific GTOs should be marked `confidential' and 
include the specific name of the GTO..

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The FinCEN Regulatory Support Section 
at 1-800-767-2825, or electronically at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Statutory and Regulatory Provisions

    The legislative framework generally referred to as the Bank Secrecy 
Act (BSA) consists of the Currency and Financial Transactions Reporting 
Act of 1970, as amended by the Uniting and Strengthening America by 
Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct 
Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act) (Public Law 107-56) and other 
legislation. The BSA is codified at 12 U.S.C. 1829b, 12 U.S.C. 1951-
1959, 31 U.S.C. 5311-5314 and 5316-5332, and notes thereto, with 
implementing regulations at 31 CFR Chapter X.
    The BSA authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, inter alia, to 
require financial institutions to keep records and file reports that 
are determined to have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, 
and regulatory matters, or in the conduct of intelligence or counter-
intelligence activities to protect against international terrorism, and 
to implement anti-money laundering (AML) programs and compliance 
procedures.\1\ Regulations implementing the BSA appear at 31 CFR 
Chapter X. The authority of the Secretary to administer the BSA has 
been delegated to the Director of FinCEN.\2\
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    \1\ Section 358 of the USA PATRIOT Act added language expanding 
the scope of the BSA to intelligence or counter-intelligence 
activities to protect against international terrorism.
    \2\ Treasury Order 180-01 (re-affirmed Jan. 14, 2020).
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    Congress amended the BSA in 1988 to give the Secretary the 
authority to issue orders under 31 U.S.C. 5326 by passing Public Law 
100-690, Title VI, Sec.  6185(c). This provision was later amended to 
permit issuance of confidential orders, lengthen the effective period 
of orders to 180 days, cover transactions involving transfers of funds, 
and to clarify that orders can be issued upon reasonable grounds for 
concluding that additional requirements are necessary to carry out the 
purposes of the subtitle of which 31 U.S.C. 5326 is a part, or to 
prevent evasions thereof. See Public Law 102-550, Title XV, Sec.  1514; 
Public Law 107-56, 353(d); Public Law 115-44, 275.
    Under 31 U.S.C. 5326(a), if the Secretary finds that reasonable 
grounds exist for concluding that additional recordkeeping and 
reporting are necessary to carry out the purpose of the BSA or to 
prevent evasions thereof, the Secretary may issue an order requiring 
any domestic financial institution or nonfinancial trade or business or 
group of domestic financial institutions or nonfinancial trades or 
businesses in a geographic area to obtain such information as the 
Secretary may describe in such order concerning certain transactions.
    The authority set forth in 31 U.S.C. 5326 to impose reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements is self-implementing.\3\ Section 5326(a) 
generally requires domestic financial institutions or nonfinancial 
trades or businesses in a geographic area that receive an order to 
report, in the manner and to the extent specified in an order, 
information concerning any transaction in which such financial 
institution or nonfinancial trade or business is involved for the 
payment, receipt, or transfer of funds (as the Secretary may describe 
in such order). An order typically will include the following terms: 
(i) The dollar amount of

[[Page 84105]]

transactions subject to the reporting requirement; (ii) the type of 
transactions subject to or exempt from the reporting requirement; (iii) 
the appropriate form for reporting and the method for form submission; 
(iv) the starting and ending dates by which the transactions specified 
in the order are to be reported; (v) a point of contact at FinCEN for 
questions; (vi) the amount of time the reports and records of reports 
generated are required to be retained; and (vii) any other information 
deemed necessary to carry out the purpose of the order. Pursuant to 31 
U.S.C. 5326(d), no order will prescribe a reporting period of more than 
180 days unless it is renewed pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 5326(a). These 
orders are commonly referred to as geographic targeting orders (GTOs).
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    \3\ Although 31 U.S.C. 5326 does not mention the need for a 
prescribing regulation, a rule corresponding to section 5326 is set 
forth at 31 CFR 1010.370. Among other things, the rule defines a 
geographic area.
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    31 CFR 1010.410(d) requires each financial institution or 
nonfinancial trade or business to retain the original or a copy or 
reproduction of a record of the information required to be reported in 
a GTO for the period of time specified in the order, not to exceed five 
years.

II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) \4\
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    \4\ Public Law 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).
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    Title: Reports and records of certain domestic transactions (31 
U.S.C. 5326; 31 CFR 1010.370 and 1010.410(d)).
    OMB Control Number: 1506-0056.
    Report Number: Not applicable.
    Abstract: FinCEN is issuing this notice to renew the OMB control 
number for statutes and regulations requiring reports and records of 
certain domestic transactions.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit institutions, and 
non-profit institutions.
    Type of Review: Renewal without change of a currently approved 
information collection.
    Frequency: As required.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 353 domestic financial 
institutions and/or nonfinancial trades or businesses.\5\
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    \5\ The number of respondents, 353, is the average for 2018 
(377), 2019 (259), and 2020 (424). Note that FinCEN may issue a GTO 
to any business in the United States. Generally, a GTO is issued to 
a specific sector or business type.
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    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 13,719 responses.\6\
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    \6\ The number of responses, 13,719, is the average number of 
responses for 2018 (12,866), 2019 (14,046), and 2020 (14,244).
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    Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden:
    Generally the information required to be recorded and reported as a 
result of a GTO is basic information to which a domestic financial 
institution or nonfinancial trade or business would have access in the 
normal course of doing business. For instance, a domestic financial 
institution or nonfinancial trade or business involved in a payment, 
receipt or transfer of funds, would have access to the information 
required to be reported. The information required to be reported for a 
GTO, generally, includes the following: (i) The dollar amount of the 
transaction; (ii) the type of transaction; (iii) information 
identifying a party to the transaction, such as name, address, date of 
birth, and tax identification number; (iv) the role of a party in the 
transaction (i.e., originator or beneficiary); and (v) the name, 
address, and contact information for the domestic financial institution 
or nonfinancial trade or business.
    As noted above, FinCEN will specify the form and method for 
reporting. For GTOs, FinCEN has used modified currency transaction 
reports and Form 8300s, and has also created reports unique to the GTO 
when appropriate. All responses to GTOs are submitted to FinCEN 
electronically, such as through the BSA E-Filing System.
    Because the information to be reported is readily available to a 
domestic financial institution or nonfinancial trade or business, 
FinCEN estimates that reporting this information will take 20 minutes 
on average. Additionally, the GTO information is filed electronically, 
which allows the filer to save an electronic version of the form and 
satisfy the recordkeeping requirement. Therefore, FinCEN estimates that 
the recordkeeping requirement will take 5 minutes on average. FinCEN 
estimates the total hourly burden of reporting and recordkeeping for 
each reportable transaction under a GTO is 25 minutes.
    Estimated Total Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden: The 
average number of reportable transactions under GTOs is 13,719 
responses. 13,719 responses multiplied by 25 minutes per response and 
converted to hours equals 5,716 hours.\7\
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    \7\ Although the burden is stated as an annual burden in 
accordance with the PRA, the estimated annual burden is not intended 
to indicate that there is a GTO in effect throughout a year or in 
each year.
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    Estimated Total Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost: 5,716 
hours x $30.60 per hour \8\ = $174,909.60.
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    \8\ The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment 
Statistics-National, May 2019, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. The most recent data from the BLS corresponds to May 
2019. For the benefits component of total compensation, see U.S. 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer's Cost per Employee 
Compensation as of December 2019, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. The ratio between benefits and wages for financial 
activities is $15.95 (hourly benefits)/$32.05 (hourly wages) = 0.50. 
The benefit factor is 1 plus the benefit/wages ratio, or 1.50. 
Multiplying each hourly wage by the benefit factor produces the 
fully-loaded hourly wage per position. The May 2019 Bureau of Labor 
Statistics average hourly wage for ``43-3099 Financial Clerk'' is 
$20.40. ($20.40 x 1.50 = $30.60). The Financial Clerk average hourly 
wage is being used here because there is a great deal of variation 
across industries and geographies in who is responsible for 
responding to a GTO.
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    An Agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection of 
information displays a valid OMB control number. Records required to be 
retained under the BSA must be retained for five years.
    General Request for Comments: Comments submitted in response to 
this notice will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB 
approval. Comments are invited on: (i) Whether the recordkeeping of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (ii) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the collection of information; (iii) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (iv) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology; and (v) estimates of capital or start-
up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 
to provide information.

Michael Mosier,
Deputy Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
[FR Doc. 2020-28431 Filed 12-22-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-02-P