[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 11, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1479-1484]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-00332]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal; 
Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Reports of Transactions With 
Foreign Financial Agencies

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, the regulations 
authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, as appropriate, to promulgate 
regulations requiring specified financial institutions to file reports 
with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of certain transactions 
with designated foreign financial agencies. Although no changes are 
proposed to the information collection itself, this request for 
comments covers a future expansion of the scope of the annual hourly 
burden and cost estimate associated with these regulations. 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 
March 14, 2022

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-2022-0001 and the specific Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
control number 1506-0055.
     Mail: Policy Division, Financial Crimes Enforcement 
Network, P.O. Box 39, Vienna, VA 22183. Refer to Docket Number FINCEN-
2022-0001 and OMB control number 1506-0055.
    Please submit comments by one method only. 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. A comment 
about the burden posed to a financial institution by a regulation 
requiring the reporting of certain transactions with designated foreign 
financial agencies, but that does not describe the regulation or the 
reporting requirement in detail will not be considered to contain 
confidential information.

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 (October 26, 
2001), and other legislation, including most recently the Anti-Money 
Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act).\1\ The BSA is codified at 12 U.S.C. 
1829b, 12 U.S.C. 1951-1960, 31 U.S.C. 5311-5314 and 5316-5336, and 
includes notes thereto, with implementing regulations at 31 CFR Chapter 
X.
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    \1\ The AML Act was enacted as Division F, Sec. Sec.  6001-6511, 
of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization 
Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Public Law 116-283, 134 Stat 3388 (2021).
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    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 AML programs and compliance procedures.\2\ 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.\3\
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    \2\ 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. Section 6101 
of the AML Act added language further expanding the scope of the BSA 
but did not amend these longstanding purposes.
    \3\ Treasury Order 180-01 (re-affirmed Jan. 14, 2020).
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    The Secretary is authorized to require any ``resident or citizen of 
the United States or a person in, and doing business in, the United 
States, to . . . keep records and file reports, when the resident, 
citizen, or person makes a transaction or maintains a relation for any 
person with a foreign financial agency.'' \4\ The term ``foreign 
financial agency'' \5\ (FFA) means any person

[[Page 1480]]

engaging in any activities outside the United States of a ``financial 
agency,'' which the statute defines as ``a person acting for a person . 
. . as a financial institution, bailee, depository trustee, or agent, 
or acting in a similar way related to money, credit, securities, gold, 
or a transaction in money, credit, securities or gold, or a service 
provided with respect to money, securities, futures, precious metals, 
stones and jewels, or value that substitutes for currency.'' \6\ The 
Secretary is also authorized to prescribe exemptions to the reporting 
requirement and to prescribe other matters the Secretary considers 
necessary to carry out 31 U.S.C. 5314. The regulations implementing 
reports of transactions with foreign financial agencies are found at 31 
CFR 1010.360.
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    \4\ 31 U.S.C. 5314(a).
    \5\ 31 U.S.C. 5312(b)(2).
    \6\ See 31 U.S.C. 5312(a)(1) as amended by 6102 (d)(1)(A) of the 
AML Act. The definition of financial agency exempts a person acting 
for a country, a monetary or financial authority acting as a 
monetary or financial authority, or an international financial 
institution of which the United States Government is a member.
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    31 CFR 1010.360(a) authorizes the Secretary, when the Secretary 
deems appropriate, to promulgate regulations requiring specified 
financial institutions to file reports of certain transactions with 
designated FFAs.\7\
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    \7\ If such a regulation is issued as a final rule without 
notice and opportunity for public comment, then a finding of good 
cause for dispensing with notice and comment in accordance with 5 
U.S.C. 553(b) must be included in the regulation. If the regulation 
is not published in the Federal Register, then any financial 
institution subject to the regulation must be named and personally 
served or otherwise given actual notice in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 
553(b). If a financial institution is given notice of a reporting 
requirement by means other than publication in the Federal Register, 
the Secretary may prohibit disclosure of the existence or provisions 
of that reporting requirement to the designated FFA(s) and to any 
other party. See 31 C.F.R. 1010.360(a).
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    A regulation promulgated pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360(a) must 
designate one or more of the following categories of information to be 
reported by the specified financial institution:
     Checks or drafts, including traveler's checks, received by 
a respondent financial institution for collection or credit to the 
account of a designated FFA, sent by the respondent financial 
institution to a foreign country for collection or payment, drawn by 
the respondent financial institution on a designated FFA, or drawn by a 
designated FFA on the respondent financial institution, including the 
following information: Name of maker or drawer; name of drawee or 
drawee financial institution; name of payee; date and amount of 
instrument; and names of all endorsers.
     Transmittal orders received by a respondent financial 
institution from a designated FFA or sent by the respondent financial 
institution to a designated FFA, including all information maintained 
by that institution pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.410 and 1020.410.
     Loans made by a respondent financial institution to or 
through a designated FFA, including the following information: Name of 
borrower; name of person acting for borrower; date and amount of loan; 
terms of repayment; name of guarantor; rate of interest; method of 
distributing proceeds; and collateral for loan.
     Commercial paper received or shipped by a respondent 
financial institution, including the following information: Name of 
maker; date and amount of paper; due date; certificate number; and 
amount of transaction.
     Stocks received or shipped by a respondent financial 
institution, including the following information: Name of corporation; 
type of stock; certificate number; number of shares; date of 
certificate; name of registered holder; and amount of transaction.
     Bonds received or shipped by a respondent financial 
institution, including the following information: Name of issuer; bond 
number; type of bond series; date issued; due date; rate of interest; 
amount of transaction; and name of registered holder.
     Certificates of deposit received or shipped by a 
respondent financial institution, including the following information: 
Name and address of issuer; date issued; dollar amount; name of 
registered holder; due date; rate of interest; certificate number; and 
name and address of issuing agent.
    In issuing regulations as provided in 31 CFR 1010.360(a), the 
Secretary must prescribe: A reasonable classification of financial 
institutions subject to or exempt from a reporting requirement; a 
foreign country to which a reporting requirement applies if the 
Secretary decides that applying the requirement to all foreign 
countries is unnecessary or undesirable; the magnitude of transactions 
subject to a reporting requirement; and the kind of transaction subject 
to or exempt from a reporting requirement.
    Regulations issued pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360(a) may prescribe the 
manner in which the information is to be reported. However, the 
Secretary may authorize a designated financial institution to report in 
a different manner if the institution demonstrates to the Secretary 
that the form of the required report is unnecessarily burdensome on the 
institution as prescribed; that a report in a different form will 
provide all the information the Secretary deems necessary; and that 
submission of the information in a different manner will not unduly 
hinder the effective administration of 31 CFR Chapter X.
    In issuing regulations under 31 CFR 1010.360(e), the Secretary: (i) 
Must consider the need to avoid impeding or controlling the export or 
import of monetary instruments and the need to avoid burdening 
unreasonably a person making a transaction with a designated FFA; (ii) 
cannot issue a regulation under 31 CFR 1010.360(a) for the purpose of 
obtaining individually identifiable account information concerning a 
customer, as defined by the Right to Financial Privacy Act,\8\ where 
that customer is already the subject of an ongoing investigation for 
possible violation of the BSA, or is known by the Secretary to be the 
subject of an investigation for possible violation of any other Federal 
law; and (iii) may issue a regulation pursuant to 31 CFR 1010.360(a) 
requiring a financial institution to report transactions completed 
prior to the date it received notice of the reporting requirement. 
However, with respect to completed transactions, a financial 
institution may be required to provide information only from records 
required to be maintained pursuant to the requirements of 31 CFR 
Chapter X, or any other provision of state or Federal law, or otherwise 
maintained in the regular course of business.
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    \8\ 12 U.S.C. 3401 et seq.
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    31 CFR 1010.430(d) requires that all records that are required to 
be retained by Chapter X must be retained for a period of five years.

II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) \9\
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    \9\ Public Law 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).
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    Title: Reports of transactions with foreign financial agencies (31 
CFR 1010.360).
    OMB Control Number: 1506-0055.
    Report Number: Not applicable.
    Abstract: FinCEN is issuing this notice to renew the OMB control 
number for regulations requiring reports of transactions with 
designated FFAs.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit institutions, and 
non-profit institutions.
    Type of Review:
     Renewal without change of a currently approved information 
collection.
     Propose for review and comment a renewal of the portion of 
the PRA burden that has been subject to notice and comment in the past 
(the ``traditional annual PRA burden'').

[[Page 1481]]

     Propose for review and comment a future expansion of the 
scope of the PRA burden (the ``supplemental annual PRA burden'').
    Frequency: As required.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 9 domestic financial 
institutions.\10\
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    \10\ Between 2019-2021, FinCEN sent FFA requests to an average 
of 9 financial institutions (5-13 financial institutions per request 
for an average of 9 financial institutions per request).
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    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 84 responses.\11\
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    \11\ Between 2019-2021, FinCEN sent a total of 4 requests to an 
average of 9 financial institutions, for a total average of 36 
requests over three years. The requests asked for information on 1 
to 12 FFAs per request, with an average of 6.5 (rounded up to 7) 
FFAs per request. 36 total average requests multiplied by 7 FFAs per 
request equals 252 responses over the course of 3 years. Therefore, 
the annual estimated number of responses is 252 responses divided by 
3 years, which equals 84 responses annually.
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    Estimated Recordkeeping Burden:
    In Part 1, FinCEN proposes for review and comment a renewal of the 
estimate of the traditional annual PRA hourly burden, which includes a 
scope and methodology similar to that used in the past, with the 
incorporation of a more robust cost estimate. In the past, FinCEN 
estimated that, for one FFA request, it would take one financial 
institution five hours to report the required transactions as part of 
one response. The scope and methodology used in the past did not factor 
in that, as part of one FFA request, financial institutions may be 
asked to report on multiple prior (``backward-looking'') and future 
(``forward-looking'') transactions with a designated FFA. FinCEN 
assesses that the volume of reportable transactions, per financial 
institution and FFA request over a specified forward- and backward-
looking period, along with the burden to implement a monitoring system 
for such transactions, would be the best indication of an annual hourly 
burden estimate per financial institution in the future. For that 
reason, in Part 2, FinCEN proposes for review and comment a methodology 
to estimate the hourly burden and the cost of a future estimate of a 
supplemental annual PRA burden that includes the burden and cost per 
financial institution, per FFA request of complying with forward and 
backward-looking reporting requirements. Finally, in Part 3, FinCEN 
solicits input from the public about: (a) The accuracy of the 
traditional annual PRA burden estimate; (b) the method proposed for the 
calculation of the future supplemental annual PRA burden; (c) the 
criteria, metrics, and most appropriate questions FinCEN should 
consider when researching the information to estimate the future 
traditional and supplemental annual PRA burden, according to the 
methodology proposed; and (d) any other comments about the regulations 
and the current and proposed future hourly burden and cost estimates of 
these requirements.

Part 1. Traditional Annual PRA Burden and Cost

    Generally, the information required to be reported pursuant to an 
FFA regulation is basic information that a domestic financial 
institution would already maintain based on current BSA recordkeeping 
requirements. For example, a domestic financial institution sending or 
receiving transmittal orders (funds transfers) with a designated FFA 
would have access to the information required to be reported. The 
information required to be reported pursuant to an FFA regulation 
includes one or more of the following categories: (i) Checks or drafts; 
(ii) transmittal orders; (iii) loans; (iv) commercial paper; (v) 
stocks; (vi) bonds; and (vii) certificates of deposit. Although FFA 
requests may include any of these types of transactions, in general, 
over the past three years, FinCEN has only made requests associated 
with funds transfers.
    As noted above, FinCEN will specify the form and method for 
reporting and typically provides a reporting schedule to each specified 
financial institution. If a specified financial institution does not 
have any reportable transactions, that information must be reported to 
FinCEN.
    Because of the difficulty involved in estimating the (i) volume of 
reportable transactions per FFA request over a specified forward- and 
backward-looking period of time, and (ii) burden for a financial 
institution to implement a monitoring system to conduct such searches, 
FinCEN continues to estimate that reporting this information will take 
five hours on average for the traditional annual PRA burden. 
Additionally, the FFA information is typically reported by uploading a 
comma-separated value file spreadsheet through FinCEN's Secure 
Information Sharing System, which allows the filer to save an 
electronic version of the report and satisfy the recordkeeping 
requirement. FinCEN estimates that the recordkeeping requirement will 
take five minutes on average. Therefore, FinCEN estimates the total 
hourly reporting and recordkeeping burden for each FFA request is five 
hours and five minutes per response by a financial institution.\12\
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    \12\ The scope and methodology used in 2014, when FinCEN had not 
yet issued regulations under this authority, estimated the number of 
respondents per year as 1. The estimated number of responses was 
also 1 with a reporting burden of 1 hour per respondent for a total 
annual burden of 1 hour. The 1 hour burden estimate was to keep the 
OMB control number effective. At the time, FinCEN noted that should 
it issue regulations under this authority, it would provide a burden 
estimate specific to those regulations. In 2016, following the 
issuance of a non-public regulation under this authority, FinCEN 
requested that OMB revise the number of respondents per year to 200, 
at 1 response per respondent, with a reporting burden of 5 hours per 
respondent, for a total annual burden of 1,000 hours. OMB issued a 
Notice of Action reflecting the revised burden hours on March 13, 
2019.
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    FinCEN's estimate of the traditional annual PRA burden, therefore, 
is 427 hours, as detailed in Table 1 below:

               Table 1--Burden Associated With Each Portion of the Traditional Annual PRA Estimate
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                                                                                                   Total hourly
              Action                        Responses per year              Time per instance         burden
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A. Filing reports of certain        84 reports per year...............  5 hours.................             420
 transactions with designated FFAs.
B. Complying with recordkeeping     84 records per year...............  5 minutes...............               7
 requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430.
                                                                                                 ---------------
    Total Hourly Burden...........  ..................................  ........................             427
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    To calculate the hourly costs of the burden estimate, FinCEN 
identified six roles and corresponding staff positions involved in 
filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs: (i) 
General oversight (providing institution-level process approval); (ii) 
general supervision (providing process oversight); (iii) direct 
supervision (reviewing operational-level work and cross-checking all or 
a sample of the work product against supporting documentation); (iv) 
clerical work (engaging in research and administrative review, and 
recordkeeping); (v) legal

[[Page 1482]]

compliance (ensuring the reporting process is in legal compliance); and 
(vi) computer support (ensuring feasibility of electronic submission 
and housing reports internally).
    FinCEN calculated the fully-loaded hourly wage for each of these 
six roles by using the mean wage estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor 
Statistics (BLS),\13\ and computing an additional benefits cost as 
follows:
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    \13\ The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2020 OEWS National 
Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates 
(bls.gov). The most recent data from the BLS corresponds to May 
2020. For the benefits component of total compensation, see U.S. 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, ``Table 9. Private industry workers, by 
major occupational group: employer costs per hour worked for 
employee compensation and costs as a percentage of total 
compensation'', available at Employer Costs for Employee 
Compensation Historical Tables--June 2021 (bls.gov). The ratio 
between benefits and wages for private industry workers is $10.83 
(hourly benefits)/$25.80 (hourly wages) = 0.42, as of March 2021. 
The benefit factor is 1 plus the benefit/wages ratio, or 1.42. 
Multiplying each hourly wage by the benefit factor produces the 
fully-loaded hourly wage per position.

  Table 2--Fully-Loaded Hourly Wage by Role and BLS Job Position for All Financial Institutions Covered by This
                                                     Notice
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                                                                         Mean hourly    Benefit    Fully-loaded
              Role                   BLS-code           BLS-name          wage \14\      factor     hourly wage
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General oversight \15\..........         11-1010  Chief Executive\16\         $107.12       1.42         $152.11
General supervision.............         11-3031  Financial Manager..           74.59       1.42          105.92
Direct supervision..............         13-1041  Compliance Officer.           35.81       1.42           50.85
Clerical work (research, review,         43-3099  Financial Clerk....           23.27       1.42           33.04
 and recordkeeping).
Legal compliance................         23-1010  Lawyers and                   85.66       1.42          121.64
                                                   Judicial Law
                                                   Clerks.
Computer support................         11-3021  Computer and                  77.77       1.42          110.43
                                                   Information
                                                   Systems Managers.
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    FinCEN estimates that, in general and on average,\17\ each role 
would spend different amounts of time on each portion of the 
traditional annual PRA burden, as follows:
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    \14\ For each occupation, FinCEN took the average of reported 
mean hourly wage across 9 affected financial industries (as measured 
at the most granular NAICS code available, whether at the 2, 3, 4 or 
5 digit NAICS code; see the BLS May 2020 OEWS National Industry-
Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates (bls.gov)).
    \15\ General oversight may include board of directors/trustees 
approval.
    \16\ Chief executive officer is the highest paid category in the 
BLS Occupational Employment Statistics. For that reason, FinCEN is 
conservatively estimating the highest wage rate available for its 
cost analysis.
    \17\ By ``in general,'' FinCEN means without regard to outliers 
(e.g., financial institutions with FFA reporting requirements with 
complexities that are uncommonly higher or lower than those of the 
population at large). By ``on average,'' FinCEN means the mean of 
the distribution of each subset of the population.
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    For filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs, 
the cost of each burden hour is estimated to be $95.00, as shown in 
Table 3 below:

Table 3--Equal Weighted Average Hourly Cost of Filing Reports of Certain
                    Transactions With Designated FFAs
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                                              % Time        Hourly cost
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General Oversight.......................           16.67          $25.35
General Supervision.....................           16.67           17.65
Direct Supervision......................           16.67            8.48
Clerical Work...........................           16.67            5.51
Legal Compliance........................           16.67           20.27
Computer Support........................           16.67           18.41
                                         -------------------------------
    Equal Weighted Average Hourly Cost..  ..............           95.67
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\*\ $95.67 rounded to $95.00.

    The total estimated cost of the traditional annual PRA burden is 
$40,565 as reflected in Table 4 below:

                              Table 4--Total Cost of Traditional Annual PRA Burden
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                              Steps                                Hourly burden    Hourly cost     Total cost
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Filing reports of certain transactions with designated FFAs             \18\ 420     \19\ $95.00         $39,900
 (divided between the roles listed in Table 2)..................
Complying with the recordkeeping requirements in 31 CFR 1010.430          \20\ 7      \21\ 95.00             665
 (divided between the roles listed in Table 2)..................
    Total cost..................................................  ..............  ..............          40,565
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[[Page 1483]]

Part 2. Supplemental Annual PRA Burden
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    \18\ See Table 1.
    \19\ See Table 3.
    \20\ See Table 1.
    \21\ See Table 3.
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    In the future, FinCEN intends to add a supplemental annual PRA 
burden calculation that will include the estimated hourly burden and 
cost to comply with forward- and backward-looking reporting 
requirements as part of filing reports of certain transactions with 
designated FFAs. This estimate will include the burden associated with 
implementing a monitoring system to identify such transactions.
    During the period from 2019 to 2021, FFA regulations issued by 
FinCEN had a forward- and backward-looking reporting requirement. 
Specified financial institutions were required to report forward 90-180 
days out from the effective date of the regulation (usually the date of 
issuance), and backward 14 months to five years prior to the effective 
date of the regulation. Specified financial institutions were required 
to file one report for certain backward-looking transactions, and a 
report every 30-days for certain forward-looking transactions. As a 
result, one FFA regulation could result in as many as 7 different 
reporting periods.\22\ The majority of financial institutions combined 
the reportable transactions for all FFAs listed in one regulation \23\ 
into a single report for each reporting period, thereby reducing the 
overall number of reports the financial institution might have 
otherwise provided.
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    \22\ 180 days divided into 30-day increments results in 6 
forward-looking reports. Adding one backward-looking report gives a 
totals of 7 reports.
    \23\ Between 2019-2021, FinCEN issued regulations that asked for 
information on 1 to 12 FFAs.
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    As noted above, FinCEN assesses that the volume of reportable 
transactions per financial institution and FFA request, over a 
specified forward- and backward-looking period, along with the burden 
to implement a monitoring system for such transactions, would be the 
best indication of an annual hourly burden estimate in the future. 
FinCEN does not have the necessary information to provide a tentative 
estimate for these supplemental PRA hourly burdens and costs within the 
current notice. In addition, FinCEN does not have all the necessary 
information to precisely estimate the traditional annual PRA burden. 
For that reason, FinCEN is relying on estimates used in prior renewals 
of this OMB control number and the applicable regulations. FinCEN 
further recognizes that after receiving public comments as a result of 
this notice, future traditional annual PRA hourly burden and cost 
estimates may vary significantly. FinCEN intends to conduct more 
granular studies of the actions included in the proposed scope of the 
supplemental annual PRA burden in the near future to arrive at more 
precise estimates of net BSA hourly burden and cost.\24\ The data 
obtained in these studies also may result in a significant variation of 
the estimated traditional annual PRA burden.
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    \24\ Net hourly burden and cost are the burden and cost a 
financial institution incurs to comply with requirements that are 
unique to the BSA, and that do not support any other business 
purpose or regulatory obligation of the financial institution. 
Burden for purposes of the PRA does not include the time and 
financial resources needed to comply with an information collection, 
if the time and resources are for things a business (or other 
person) does in the ordinary course of its activities if the agency 
demonstrates that the reporting activities needed to comply are 
usual and customary. 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2). For example, a financial 
institution may be collecting and maintaining information on certain 
transactions with designated FFAs in order to satisfy other 
obligations including (i) protecting the financial institution from 
fraud against itself or its customers, or (ii) complying with other 
non-BSA regulatory requirements such as those imposed by the 
specific Federal functional regulator.
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    Estimated Recordkeeping Burden: The average estimated annual PRA 
burden, measured in hours per respondent, is five hours and five 
minutes (five burden hours to file reports of certain transactions with 
designated FFAs, and five minutes to comply with recordkeeping 
requirements).
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 9, as noted above in Section II.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 84 responses reporting on certain 
transactions with designated FFAs annually; and 84 instances of 
recordkeeping associated with these responses annually, as noted in 
Section II.
    Estimated Total Annual Recordkeeping Burden: The estimated total 
annual PRA burden is 427 hours, as set out in Table 1.
    Estimated Total Annual Recordkeeping Cost: The estimated total 
annual PRA cost is $40,565, as set out in Table 4.
    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.

Part 3. Request for Comments

    (a) Specific request for comments on the traditional annual PRA 
hourly burden and cost.
    FinCEN invites comments on any aspect of the traditional annual PRA 
burden, as set out in Part 1 of this notice. In particular, FinCEN 
seeks comments on the adequacy of: (i) FinCEN's assumptions underlying 
its estimate of the burden; (ii) the estimated number of hours required 
by each portion of the burden; and (iii) the organizational levels of 
the financial institution engaged in each portion of the burden, their 
estimated hourly remuneration, and the estimated proportion of 
participation by each role. FinCEN encourages commenters to include any 
publicly available sources for alternative estimates or methodologies.
    (b) Specific request for comments on the proposed criteria for 
determining the scope of a supplemental annual PRA hourly burden and 
cost estimate.
    FinCEN invites comments on any aspect of the criteria for a future 
estimate of the supplemental annual PRA burden, as set out in Part 2 of 
this notice.
    (c) Specific request for comments on the appropriate criteria, 
methodology, and questionnaire required to obtain information to more 
precisely estimate the supplemental annual PRA hourly burden and cost.
    FinCEN invites comments on the most appropriate and comprehensive 
means to question financial institutions about the annual hourly burden 
and cost attributable solely to complying with the regulations that 
require reports of transactions with designated FFAs.
    The supplemental annual PRA hourly burden and cost estimate to 
comply with the regulations that require reports of transactions with 
designated FFAs must take into consideration only the effort involved 
in obtaining those data elements that are used exclusively for 
complying with requirements under 31 CFR 1010.360 and 31 CFR 1010.430, 
respectively. Given the complexity in determining what portion of the 
effort to include in the estimate, FinCEN seeks comments from the 
public regarding any questions we should consider posing in future 
notices, in addition to the specific questions for comment outlined 
directly below.
Specific Questions for Comments
     What is the burden to comply with requests for records 
issued under the FFA regulations (31 CFR 1010.360 and 31 CFR 1010.430)?
     How much time is spent on complying with the backward-
looking requirements of an FFA request?
     How much time is spent on complying with the forward-
looking requirements of an FFA request?
     Of the time spent on complying with backward- or forward-
looking reporting requirements, what percentage

[[Page 1484]]

is spent by an employee with the role of general oversight? Of general 
supervision? Of direct supervision? Of clerical work? Of legal 
compliance? Of computer support?
     Are there employees with any other roles and corresponding 
staff positions involved in filing reports of certain transactions with 
designated FFAs?
     Does your financial institution typically report the data 
for requests that involve multiple designated FFAs in one report or 
multiple reports for each tranche of reporting?
     What challenges does your financial institution face or 
overcome in complying with FFA regulations?
     What can be done to improve transparency and communication 
as part of the FFA reporting process?
General Request for Comments
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will 
become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on: (i) Whether 
the collection 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.

Himamauli Das,
Acting Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
[FR Doc. 2022-00332 Filed 1-10-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-02-P