[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 61 (Wednesday, March 30, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18475-18476]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-06643]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Reports of Transactions With Foreign Financial 
Agencies

AGENCY: Departmental Offices, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of the Treasury will submit the following 
information collection requests to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of publication of this 
notice. The public is invited to submit comments on these requests.

DATES: Comments should be received on or before April 29, 2022 to be 
assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Copies of the submissions may be 
obtained from Spencer W. Clark by emailing [email protected], calling 
(202) 927-5331, or viewing the entire information collection request at 
www.reginfo.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Reports of transactions with foreign financial agencies (31 
CFR 1010.360).
    OMB Control Number: 1506-0055.
    Type of Review: Renewal without change of a currently approved 
information collection.
    Description: 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.
    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. 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.
    The Secretary is authorized to require any ``resident or citizen of 
the United States or a person in, and doing

[[Page 18476]]

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.'' The term 
``foreign financial agency'' (FFA) means any person 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.'' 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.
    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.
    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, 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.
    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.
    FinCEN is issuing this notice to renew the OMB control number for 
regulations requiring reports of transactions with designated FFAs.
    Form: None.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit institutions; non-
profit institutions.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 9.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion.
    Estimated Total Number of Annual Responses: 84.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 11,897 hours.
    Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.

Molly Stasko,
Treasury PRA Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2022-06643 Filed 3-29-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-02-P