[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 180 (Tuesday, September 17, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76187-76190]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-21079]



[[Page 76187]]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal; 
Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Purchases of Bank Checks and 
Drafts, Cashier's Checks, Money Orders, and Traveler's Checks

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 existing information collection requirements found 
in Bank Secrecy Act regulations that require financial institutions to 
maintain records related to the issuance or sale of bank checks and 
drafts, cashier's checks, money orders, and traveler's checks when the 
issuance or sale involves the use of currency in an amount between 
$3,000 and $10,000, inclusive. 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 
November 18, 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-2024-0017 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control 
number 1506-0057.
     Mail: Policy Division, Financial Crimes Enforcement 
Network, P.O. Box 39, Vienna, VA 22183. Refer to Docket Number FINCEN-
2024-0017 and OMB control number 1506-0057.
    Please submit comments by one method only. Comments will be 
reviewed consistent with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 
applicable OMB regulations and guidance. All comments submitted in 
response to this notice will become a matter of public record. 
Therefore, you should submit only information that you wish to make 
publicly available.

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) \1\ and other legislation, 
including the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act).\2\ The BSA 
is codified at 12 U.S.C. 1829b, 1951-1960 and 31 U.S.C. 5311-5314, 
5316-5336, including notes thereto, with implementing regulations at 31 
CFR chapter X.
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    \1\ USA PATRIOT Act, Public Law 107-56, 115 Stat. 272 (2001).
    \2\ 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.
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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 proceedings, 
or in the conduct of intelligence or counter-intelligence activities to 
protect against terrorism, and to implement anti-money laundering/
countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs and compliance 
procedures.\3\ The authority of the Secretary to administer the BSA has 
been delegated to the Director of FinCEN.\4\
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    \3\ See 31 U.S.C. 5311.
    \4\ Treasury Order 180-01 (Jan. 14, 2020); see also 31 U.S.C. 
310(b)(2)(I) (providing that FinCEN Director ``[a]dminister the 
requirements of subchapter II of chapter 53 of this title, chapter 2 
of title I of Public Law 91-508, and section 21 of the Federal 
Deposit Insurance Act, to the extent delegated such authority by the 
Secretary.'').
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    The BSA prohibits financial institutions from issuing any ``bank 
check, cashier's check, traveler's check, or money order to any 
individual in connection with a transaction or group of such 
contemporaneous transactions which involves United States coins or 
currency (or such other monetary instruments as the Secretary may 
prescribe) in amounts or denominations of $3,000 or more'' unless the 
individual either (1) has a verified transaction account with the 
financial institution; or (2) furnishes the financial institution with 
the information required by regulations and that information is 
verified and recorded by the financial institution, along with the 
method of account verification or the information required to be 
furnished.\5\ To implement these requirements, FinCEN issued a 
regulation requiring financial institutions to maintain records related 
to the issuance or sale of bank checks and drafts, cashier's checks, 
money orders, and traveler's checks.\6\ The regulation applies to all 
financial institutions as defined in 31 CFR 1010.100(t). However, as a 
practical matter banks and money services businesses (MSBs) are the 
types of financial institutions most likely to issue or sell bank 
checks and drafts, cashier's checks, money orders, and traveler's 
checks.7 8
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    \5\ 31 U.S.C. 5325.
    \6\ 31 CFR 1010.415. This regulation was originally published in 
1990 as 31 CFR 103.29. See Amendment to the Bank Secrecy Act 
Regulations Relating to Identification Required to Purchase Bank 
Checks and Drafts, Cashier's Checks, Money Orders and Traveler's 
Checks, 55 FR 20139 (May 15, 1990). It was modified slightly in 
1994. See FinCEN, Amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act Regulations 
Relating to Identification Required to Purchase Bank Checks and 
Drafts, Cashier's Checks, Money Orders, and Traveler's Checks, 59 FR 
52250 (Oct. 17, 1994).
    \7\ 31 CFR 1010.100(t) defines financial institution to include: 
banks; brokers or dealers in securities; MSBs, telegraph companies; 
casinos and card clubs; persons subject to supervision by any state 
or Federal bank supervisory authority; futures commission merchants, 
introducing brokers in commodities; and mutual funds. It is FinCEN's 
assessment that banks and MSBs are the only types of financial 
institutions as defined under 31 CFR 1010.100(t) that are in the 
business of issuing or selling bank checks and drafts, cashier's 
checks, money orders, and traveler's checks.
    \8\ 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(3) defines an MSB that is an issuer or 
seller of traveler's checks or money orders as a person that issues 
or sells traveler's checks or money orders in an amount greater than 
$1,000 to any person on any day in one or more transactions. FinCEN 
can estimate the number of principal MSBs that report that they are 
issuers and/or sellers of money orders or traveler's checks on 
FinCEN Form 107--Registration of Money Services Businesses (RMSB). 
However, FinCEN cannot estimate the number of agent MSBs that may be 
issuers and/or sellers of money orders or traveler's checks. FinCEN 
assesses that given that an MSB is only defined as an issuer and/or 
seller of traveler's check if it issues or sells money orders and/or 
traveler's checks that accumulate to greater than $1,000 to any one 
person on any day in one or more transactions that most agent MSBs 
are less likely to reach the $1,000 threshold that would warrant 
compliance with 31 CFR 1010.415. For that reason, the burden 
estimates to comply with this information collection as described in 
tables 1 and 2 below only account for principal MSBs that have 
reported on the RMSB that they are issuers and/or sellers of money 
orders or traveler's checks. The threshold of between $3,000 and 
$10,000 to comply with 31 CFR 1010.415 makes it even more unlikely 
that agent MSBs are engaged in such transactions.
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    Under 31 CFR 1010.415, financial institutions are required to 
maintain records of certain information related to the issuance or sale 
of bank checks and drafts, cashier's checks, money orders, and 
traveler's checks when the issuance or sale involves currency between 
$3,000 and $10,000, inclusive, to any individual purchaser of one or 
more of these instruments. Under 31 CFR 1010.415(a)(1)(i), if the 
purchaser has a deposit account with the financial institution, the 
financial institution is required to maintain records of: (A) the

[[Page 76188]]

name of the purchaser; (B) the date of purchase; (C) the type(s) of 
instrument(s) purchased; (D) the serial number(s) of each of the 
instrument(s) purchased; and (E) the amount in dollars of each of the 
instrument(s) purchased. Under 31 CFR 1010.415(a)(1)(ii), the financial 
institution must also verify that the individual is a deposit 
accountholder or must verify the individual's identity.\9\
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    \9\ 31 CFR 1010.415(a)(1)(ii) (stating that ``[v]erification may 
be either through a signature card or other file or record at the 
financial institution provided the deposit accountholder's name and 
address were verified previously and that information was recorded 
on the signature card or other file or record; or by examination of 
a document which is normally acceptable as a means of identification 
when cashing checks for nondepositors and which contains the name 
and address of the purchaser. If the deposit accountholder's 
identity has not been verified previously, the financial institution 
may only verify the deposit accountholder's identity by examination 
of a document which is normally acceptable within the banking 
community as a means of identification when cashing checks for 
nondepositors and which contains the name and address of the 
purchaser, and must also record the specific identifying information 
(e.g., State of issuance and number of driver's license))''.
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    Under 31 CFR 1010.415(a)(2)(i), if the purchaser does not have a 
deposit account with the financial institution, the financial 
institution must maintain a record of: (A) the name and address of the 
purchaser; (B) the social security number of the purchaser, or if the 
purchaser is an alien and does not have a social security number, the 
alien identification number; (C) the date of birth of the purchaser; 
(D) the date of the purchase; (E) the type(s) of instrument(s) 
purchased; (F) the serial number(s) of the instrument(s) purchased; and 
(G) the amount in dollars of each of the instrument(s) purchased. Under 
31 CFR 1010.415(a)(2)(ii), the financial institution must also verify 
the purchaser's name and address by examination of a document that is 
normally acceptable as a means of identification when cashing checks 
for nondepositors and that contains the name and address of the 
purchaser, and must also record the specific identifying information.
    Under 31 CFR 1010.415(b), financial institutions must treat 
contemporaneous purchases of the same or different types of instruments 
totaling $3,000 or more as one purchase. Multiple purchases during one 
business day totaling $3,000 or more must be treated as one purchase if 
an individual employee, director, officer, or partner of the financial 
institution has knowledge that these purchases have occurred.
    Under 31 CFR 1010.415(c), financial institutions must retain all 
required records for a period of five years and make those records 
available to the Secretary upon request at any time.

II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) 10
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    \10\ Public Law 104-13, 109 Stat. 163 (codified at 44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A)).
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    Title: Purchases of bank checks and drafts, cashier's checks, money 
orders, and traveler's checks (31 CFR 1010.415).
    OMB Control Number: 1506-0057.
    Report Number: Not applicable.
    Abstract: FinCEN is issuing this notice to renew the OMB control 
number for the recordkeeping requirement for the issuance or sale of 
bank checks and drafts, cashier's checks, money orders, and traveler's 
checks when the issuance or sale involves the use currency in an amount 
between $3,000 and 10,000, inclusive.
    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: 23,207 financial institutions.\11\
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    \11\ Table 1 below describes the distribution of the types of 
financial institutions covered by this notice.
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    Estimated Recordkeeping Burden:
    In Part 1 of this analysis, FinCEN describes the distribution of 
the estimated number of financial institutions by type affected by the 
regulatory requirements. In Part 2, FinCEN describes the primary 
characteristics of the regulatory requirements. In addition, in Part 2, 
FinCEN proposes for review and comment a renewal of the calculation of 
the annual PRA burden that includes a scope and methodology similar to 
that used in the 2021 notice to renew these information collection 
requirements.\12\
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    \12\ See FinCEN, Agency Information Collection Activities; 
Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of 
Purchases of Bank Checks and Drafts, Cashier's Checks, Money Orders, 
and Traveler's Checks, 86 FR 6411 (Jan. 21, 2021).
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Part 1. Distribution of the Financial Institutions Covered by This 
Notice

    The distribution of financial institutions, by type, covered by 
this notice is reflected in table 1 below:

 Table 1--Distribution of Financial Institutions Covered by This Notice,
                    by Type of Financial Institution
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                                                             Number of
              Type of financial institution                  financial
                                                           institutions
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Banks...................................................          10,062
    Banks with a Federal functional regulator (FFR).....       \a\ 9,462
    Banks lacking an FFR................................         \b\ 600
Principal MSBS--Issuers/Sellers of Money Orders/                  13,145
 Traveler's Checks \c\..................................
    Principal MSBs--Issuers/Sellers of Money Orders Only          11,764
    Principal MSBs--Issuers/Sellers of Money Orders and            1,318
     Traveler's Checks..................................
    Principal MSBs--Issuers/Sellers of Traveler's Checks              63
     Only...............................................
                                                         ---------------
        Total...........................................          23,207
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\a\ This estimate of the total number of banks with an FFR, including
  credit unions, is based on end of year 2023 data as provided by each
  of the FFRs, respectively. The FFRs are the Board of Governors of the
  Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the
  Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the National Credit
  Union Administration.
\b\ This estimate of active entries as of year-end 2023 was derived in
  consultation with staff from the Internal Revenue Service's Small
  Business/Self-Employed Division and incorporates data from both public
  and non-public sources, including: Call Reports; various State banking/
  financial institution regulators' websites and directories; the
  Federal Reserve Board of Governors' Master Account and Services
  database (https://federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/master-account-and
  services-database-exisiting-access.htm); and data from the
  Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones
  Financieras (OCIF).
\c\ This number is derived from data as self-reported by MSBs identified
  as active at year-end 2023 in FinCEN's publicly available MSB
  registration database. FinCEN, MSB Registrant Search, available at
  https://www.fincen.gov/msb-state-selector (downloaded Feb. 28, 2024).


[[Page 76189]]

    In connection with a variety of initiatives FinCEN is undertaking 
to implement the AML Act, FinCEN intends to conduct, in the future, 
additional assessments of the PRA burden associated with BSA 
requirements.

Part 2. Annual PRA Burden and Cost

    The scope of the annual PRA burden and cost estimates in this 
renewal encompasses the incremental recordkeeping requirements for 
FinCEN purposes that are associated with the issuance or sale of bank 
checks and drafts, cashier's checks, money orders, and traveler's 
checks between $3,000 and $10,000, inclusive. FinCEN continues to 
assign an estimate of the incremental annual average hourly burden of 
creating and maintaining records for the issuance or sale of bank 
checks and drafts, cashier's checks, money orders, or traveler's checks 
to individual purchasers when the sale involves currency between $3,000 
and $10,000, inclusive, that is approximately seven and a half hours 
per covered financial institution, irrespective of the volume of such 
transactions.\13\ This estimate covers the expected average incremental 
recordkeeping burden for FinCEN purposes of (1) verifying the identity 
of depository accountholder and other customers purchasing bank checks 
and drafts, cashier's checks, money orders, or traveler's checks when 
the issuance or sale involves currency between $3,000 and $10,000, 
inclusive; and (2) creating and maintaining records of certain 
information for a minimum of five years to be made available to the 
Secretary upon request.\14\
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    \13\ FinCEN does not have access to enough of the requisite data 
to estimate the volume of bank checks and drafts, cashier's checks, 
money orders, and/or traveler's checks or the typical currency value 
of the relevant products that are issued or sold by any one covered 
financial institution in a given year. FinCEN's PRA estimates of the 
number of affected financial institutions include all identified, 
active entities in the respective categories of financial 
institutions that issue or sell the financial instruments covered by 
this control renewal. However, to the extent that SAR filings 
related to money orders or traveler's checks might proxy for the 
number of entities that regularly issue or sell such financial 
instruments in dollar values that would incur an incremental 
recordkeeping burden for FinCEN purposes, the number of affected 
financial institutions is likely two to three orders of magnitude 
smaller than then number of financial institutions to whom the rule 
applies. For example, between 2014 and 2023, the number of unique 
MSBs that filed SARs related to money orders ranged between a 
minimum of 1.7 (in 2024) and a maximum of 2.7 (2015) percent of the 
current estimate of affected MSBs. Over the same time period the 
number of unique MSBs that filed SARs related to traveler's checks 
ranged from a minimum of 0.02 (in 2020) to a maximum of 0.09 (in 
2016) percent of the population of affected MSBs estimated in table 
2. Thus, while certain financial institutions, or types of affected 
financial institutions, may expect to incur a substantially higher 
incremental annual burden, FinCEN expects many other financial 
institutions may not incur any incremental recordkeeping burden at 
all due to the nature of their business practices. FinCEN therefore 
continues to assign an estimated average incremental annual hourly 
burden per financial institutions to comply with this information 
collection of seven and half hours that reflects this expectation 
about the distribution of affected financial institutions. FinCEN 
invites comments regarding information relevant to the calculation 
of burden--ideally from sources and collection methods that provide 
sufficient transparency and reliability for FinCEN to be confident 
in using that information in its calculations.
    \14\ This estimated burden, particularly with respect to 
depository customers of a bank, is intended to be distinct from the 
burden estimated in connection with a bank's compliance with its 
ordinary customer identification program (CIP) obligations under 31 
CFR 1020.220. FinCEN recently published its burden estimates related 
to CIP requirements and solicited public comment on those estimates 
separately. See FinCEN, Agency Information Collection Activities; 
Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of the 
Customer Identification Program Regulatory Requirements, 89 FR 51940 
(June 20, 2024).
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    FinCEN's estimate of the total annual PRA burden (174,053 hours) 
includes the recordkeeping requirements being renewed in this notice, 
detailed in table 2 below:

   Table 2--Distribution of Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours of Maintaining Recordkeeping Requirements for
          Issuance/Sale of Bank Checks and Drafts, Cashier's Checks, Money Orders, or Traveler's Checks
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                                                                                 Average annual
                                                                  Number of     burden estimate
             Affected financial institution type                  financial      per financial     Total annual
                                                                institutions     institution in    burden hours
                                                                                     hours
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Banks........................................................          10,062                7.5          75,465
Issuers/sellers of money orders..............................          11,764                7.5          88,230
Issuers/sellers of money orders and traveler's checks........           1,318                7.5           9,885
Issuers/sellers of travel checks.............................              63                7.5             473
                                                              --------------------------------------------------
    Total annual burden hours................................  ..............  .................         174,053
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[[Page 76190]]

    FinCEN is utilizing the same fully loaded composite hourly wage 
rate of $106.30 utilized in the 2024 notices of proposed rulemaking 
(NPRMs) entitled Customer Identification Programs for Registered 
Investment Advisers and Exempt Reporting Companies and Anti-Money 
Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Programs, as well 
as in recent 60-Day Notices to renew OMB control numbers corresponding 
to specific BSA regulations.\15\
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    \15\ See, e.g., FinCEN and SEC, NPRM Customer Identification 
Programs for Registered Investment Advisers and Exempt Reporting 
Advisers, 89 FR 44571 (May 21, 2024); FinCEN, NPRM Anti-Money 
Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Programs NPRM, 
89 FR 55428 (July 3, 2024); FinCEN, Agency Information Collection 
Activities; Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without 
Change of the Customer Identification Program Regulatory 
Requirements for Certain Financial Institutions, 89 FR 51940 (June 
20, 2024); FinCEN, Agency Information Collection Activities; 
Proposed Renewal; Comment Request; Renewal Without Change of Due 
Diligence Programs for Correspondent Accounts for Foreign Financial 
Institutions and for Private Banking Accounts, 89 FR 49273, (June 
11, 2024).
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    The total estimated cost of the annual PRA burden is 
$18,501,833.90, as reflected in table 3 below:

                               Table 3--Estimated Total Cost of Annual PRA Burden
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                      Regulatory requirement                        Burden hours    Wage rate      Total cost
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Verifying and maintaining records................................         174,053      $106.30    $18,501,833.90
                                                                  ----------------------------------------------
    Total annual cost............................................  ..............  ...........     18,501,833.90
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    Estimated Number of Respondents: 23,207, as set out in table 1.
    Estimated Total Annual Recordkeeping Burden: The estimated total 
annual PRA burden is 174,053 hours, as set out in table 2.
    Estimated Total Annual Recordkeeping Cost: The estimated total 
annual PRA cost is $18,501,833.90, as set out in table 3.
    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. All 
comments will become a matter of public record. Comments are invited 
on: (1) 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; (2) the accuracy of the 
agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (3) 
ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; (4) 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 (5) 
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. 2024-21079 Filed 9-16-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-02-P