On June 12th, FinCEN issued guidance clarifying how financial institutions can share information with one another regarding suspected fraud under section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act.

The guidance states financial institutions can share information with other participating institutions under Section 314(b) when they suspect fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, or other criminal activity. It also clarifies that institutions may exchange fraud-related information and indicators to help identify illicit activity, such as video surveillance footage, IP addresses, suspicious payment patterns, multiple accounts with similar identifying information, and logins from geographically distant locations.

You can access the Treasury Press Release here.

You can access the 314(b) Fact Sheet here.

Although participating in the Section 314b information sharing program is voluntary, with the increasing fraud trends, collaboration among financial institutions is needed. At CCI, we highly recommend that our clients participate in the program as an additional tool to detect and prevent fraud.

CCI suggests sharing this information with your BSA/AML/CFT Officer. Please reach out to us via email at inquiries@completecompli.com with any questions.