[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 37 (Friday, February 23, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13802-13804]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03681]


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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 an existing information collection relating to 
records of certain domestic transactions. 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 the Bank Secrecy Act, or to 
prevent evasions 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. These orders are commonly referred to 
as geographic targeting orders (GTOs). This request for comments is 
made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).

DATES: Written comments are welcome and must be received on or before 
April 23, 2024.

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-2024-0007 and 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-
2024-0007 and OMB control number 1506-0056.
    Please submit comments by one method only. Comments will be 
reviewed consistent with the PRA and applicable OMB regulations and 
guidance. 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: FinCEN's 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 Foreign 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 the Anti-Money Laundering Act 
of 2020 (AML Act).\1\ The BSA is codified at 12 U.S.C. 1829b, 1951-
1960, and 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, sections 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 (Secretary) to, 
inter alia, require financial institutions to keep records and file 
reports that are determined to have a high degree of usefulness in 
criminal, tax, or regulatory matters, risk assessments or

[[Page 13803]]

proceedings, or in the conduct of intelligence or counter-intelligence 
activities to protect against international terrorism, and to implement 
AML programs and compliance procedures.\2\ 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 expanded the purpose of 
the BSA by including a reference to reports and records ``that have 
a high degree of usefulness in intelligence or counterintelligence 
activities to protect against international terrorism.'' Section 
6101 of the AML Act further expanded the purpose of the BSA to cover 
such matters as preventing money laundering, tracking illicit funds, 
assessing risk, and establishing appropriate frameworks for 
information sharing.
    \3\ Treasury Order 180-01 (Jan. 14, 2020).
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    Congress amended the BSA in 1988 to give the Secretary the 
authority to issue GTOs requiring any domestic financial institution or 
group of domestic financial institutions in a geographic area to 
collect certain information regarding specified transactions, and to 
report that information in the manner and to the extent specified in 
the GTO.\4\ Congress subsequently amended the GTO authority to: (i) 
permit the issuance of confidential GTOs; (ii) lengthen the maximum 
effective period (unless renewed) of GTOs from 60 to 180 days; (iii) 
cover transactions involving transfers of funds; and (iv) clarify that 
GTOs can be issued upon reasonable grounds for concluding that 
additional requirements are necessary to carry out the purposes of the 
BSA or to prevent evasions of the BSA.\5\
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    \4\ 31 U.S.C. 5326 was amended by Public Law 100-690, title VI, 
sec. 6185(c).
    \5\ See Public Law 102-550, title XV, sec. 1514; Public Law 107-
56, sec. 353(d); Public Law 115-44, sec. 275.
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    Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 5326(a), as amended, 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 a GTO 
requiring any domestic financial institution or nonfinancial trade or 
business or group of domestic financial institutions or domestic 
nonfinancial trades or businesses in a geographic area to obtain 
information about certain transactions, as described in the GTO.\6\
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    \6\ The authority set forth in 31 U.S.C. 5326 to impose 
reporting and recordkeeping requirements is self-implementing. 
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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    Generally, 31 U.S.C. 5326(a) requires entities that receive such a 
GTO to report, in the manner and to the extent specified in the GTO, 
information concerning any transaction in which such entity is involved 
for the payment, receipt, or transfer of funds (as described in the 
GTO). A GTO typically will include the following terms: (i) the dollar 
amount of 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 start and end dates by which the 
transactions specified in the GTO are to be reported; (v) a point of 
contact at 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 GTO. 
Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 5326(d), GTOs cannot prescribe a reporting period 
longer than 180 days, unless the GTO is renewed pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 
5326(a).
    Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 5326(a)(2), as implemented by 31 CFR 
1010.410(d), each entity that receives a GTO must retain the original 
or a copy of the information required to be reported in the GTO, for 
the period specified in the GTO, not to exceed five years.

II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 7
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    \7\ 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.
    Form Number: FinCEN will specify the form and method for reporting 
in the GTO.
    Abstract: FinCEN is issuing this notice to renew the OMB control 
number for regulations permitting the issuance of orders, commonly 
referred to as GTOs, 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: 709 domestic financial 
institutions and/or domestic nonfinancial trades or businesses.\8\
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    \8\ The number of respondents, 709, is the average for 2021 
(619), 2022 (755), and 2023 (754). 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: 21,513 responses.\9\
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    \9\ The number of responses, 21,513, is the average number of 
responses for 2021 (18,743), 2022 (25,389), and 2023 (20,411).
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    Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden Per Response:
    Generally, the information required to be recorded and reported 
pursuant to a GTO is basic information that a domestic financial 
institution or domestic nonfinancial trade or business would have 
access to in the normal course of doing business, such as payment, 
receipt, or transfer of funds information. The information required to 
be reported pursuant to 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 domestic nonfinancial trade or business.
    As noted above, FinCEN will specify the form and method for 
reporting. Responses to GTOs generally are submitted to FinCEN 
electronically, such as through the BSA E-Filing System. FinCEN has on 
occasion directed filers to respond to GTOs by using existing BSA 
electronic forms (such as the forms used to file currency transaction 
reports, suspicious activity reports,\10\ and Form 8300s), and 
completing them in the manner specified in the relevant GTO.
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    \10\ When a modified SAR is used for reporting, it is considered 
a GTO report and not a SAR that is filed to comply with the 
regulations implementing 31 U.S.C. 5318(g).
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    Because the information to be reported is readily available to a 
domestic financial institution or nonfinancial trade or business, in 
2020 FinCEN estimated that reporting this information would take 20 
minutes on average.\11\ Since then, FinCEN has received additional 
feedback from the American Land Title Association, whose members have 
submitted a number of GTO reports, noting that it takes the 
Association's members approximately 45 minutes to complete a GTO 
report. For that reason, FinCEN is increasing the estimated time to 
report GTO information to 45 minutes.
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    \11\ See, FinCEN, Agency Information Collection Activities; 
Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Bank 
Secrecy Act Regulations Requiring Reports of Certain Domestic 
Transactions, 85 FR 84104 (Dec. 23, 2020).
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    GTO information is filed electronically, which allows the filer to 
save an electronic version of the report and satisfy the recordkeeping 
requirement. Therefore, FinCEN estimates that the recordkeeping 
requirement will take five minutes on average. In total, FinCEN 
estimates the hourly burden of reporting and recordkeeping for each 
reportable transaction under a GTO to be 50

[[Page 13804]]

minutes (45 minutes for reporting and five minutes for recordkeeping).
    Estimated Total Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden: 17,928 
hours. The average number of reportable transactions under GTOs is 
21,513 responses. 21,513 responses multiplied by 50 minutes per 
response and converted to hours equals 17,928 hours.\12\
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    \12\ 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: 
$576,923.04. (17,928 hours multiplied by $32.18 per hour \13\).
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    \13\ The average hourly wage rate is calculated from the May 
2022 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) median hourly wage for 
``43-3099 Financial Clerk.'' See BLS, Occupational Employment and 
Wages Statistics (May 2022), available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. The ratio between benefits and wages for private 
industry workers is $12.19 (hourly benefits)/$29.34 (hourly wages) = 
0.42, as of September 2023. The benefit factor is 1 plus the 
benefit/wages ratio, or 1.42. See BLS, Employee Costs for Employee 
Compensation (September 2023), available at https://www.bls.gov/
ecec/home.htm#:~:text=Employer%20costs%20for%20private%20industry,per
cent%20of%20total%20compensation%20costs. The May 2022 BLS median 
hourly wage for ``43-3099 Financial Clerk'' is $22.66. ($22.66 x 
1.42 = $32.18). 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.
    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.

Andrea M. Gacki,
Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
[FR Doc. 2024-03681 Filed 2-22-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-02-P