The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) provided updated guidance to clarify how financial institutions can share information with each other about suspected fraud.
The new guidance clarifies that a financial institution may share information about activity involving suspected fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, or other specified unlawful activities. It also clarified that it may share that information with any other financial institution eligible to participate in the section 314(b) program to identify illicit financial activity.
The guidance includes examples of the type of information related to fraud and other criminal activity that financial institutions can share. They include video surveillance footage, cyber-related data, such as IP addresses; and fraud indicators like newly added payees followed by large transfers, multiple accounts with the same or similar identifying information, and login activity from geographically distant places.
“Americans lose hundreds of billions of dollars to fraud each year. At the Treasury, we follow the money, and we know financial institutions are often the first to see suspicious activity in real time. They need the tools to act quickly and share information that can help stop fraud before it spreads,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said.
Information sharing between and among financial institutions is critical to combating fraud and other financial crimes. FinCEN strongly encourages financial institutions to share information related to money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other criminal activities.