May 2016

Federal Crime of Operating an Unlicensed or Unregistered Money Transmitting Business
Title 18, Part I, Chapter 95, U.S. Code
Crimes and Criminal Procedure

• § 1960. Operating an Unlicensed or Unregistered Money Transmitting Business (Prohibition of illegal money transmitting businesses)

On March 1, 2011, FinCEN transferred its regulations from 31 CFR Part 103 to 31 CFR Chapter X as part of an ongoing effort to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its regulatory oversight. 31 CFR Chapter X is organized by generally applicable regulations and by industry-specific regulations. There have been no substantive changes made to the underlying regulations as a result of this transfer and reorganization. Please note that documents published prior to March 1, 2011 will continue to contain citations to 31 CFR Part 103.

P>On Wednesday, May 21, 1997, the Department of the Treasury will publish three Notices of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register designed to prevent and detect money laundering in the money services businesses -- money transmitters, issuers, redeemers and sellers of money orders and traveler’s checks, check cashers, and currency retail exchangers. While these regulations are the result of the lessons learned from the New York Geographic Targeting Order ("GTO"), the regulations themselves are much broader than that order.

The GTO

Background

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Department of the Treasury

Notice to Registered Money Services Businesses

If your business is registered as a money services business (MSB), and you have continued to operate as an MSB, you must renew your registration by December 31 every two years (after your initial registration period).

• If you last renewed your registration in 2005 and you have continued to operate as an MSB, you must renew your registration again by December 31, 2007.

PDF Download : poc_change_314a.pdf

To update, change, add, or delete your financial institution’s 314(a) point of contact information, you must contact your primary federal supervisory agency.

Please find your institution’s primary federal regulator or self regulatory organization in the below list and forward the above information to them.

USA PATRIOT Act Section 314(b) permits financial institutions, upon providing notice to the United States Department of the Treasury, to share information with one another in order to identify and report to the federal government activities that may involve money laundering or terrorist activity. Financial institutions wanting to do so may notify the Treasury Department by clicking on the Section 314(b) Certification link below and supplying the required information.

314(b) Fact Sheet (December 2020)

FinCEN was created in 1990 to support federal, state, local, and international law enforcement by analyzing the information required under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), one of the nation's most important tools in the fight against money laundering. The BSA's recordkeeping and reporting requirements establish a financial trail for investigators to follow as they track criminals, their activities, and their assets.

Since the Bureau’s establishment in 1990, FinCEN has played a significant role in the U.S. Government’s efforts to combat transnational organized crime. FinCEN carries out its mission by providing investigative support to law enforcement, intelligence, and regulatory agencies, cooperating globally with counterpart financial intelligence units (FIUs), and using its regulatory authorities to make it more difficult for organized criminal groups to move money through the financial system.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental policymaking body whose purpose is to establish international standards, and to develop and promote policies, both at national and international levels, to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It was formed in 1989 to set out measures to be taken in the fight against money laundering. Since then, the FATF has issued 40 recommendations to fight money laundering and 9 special recommendations to fight terrorist financing.