The Department of the Treasury is proposing a significant expansion of reporting requirements for banks involving money transfers to and from the United States, all in the name of thwarting future terrorist attacks.

 

Administration officials insist the new regulations will help them detect 9/11-like plots before they are carried out.

 

Currently, financial institutions are required to report to the Treasury Department transactions in excess of $10,000 and any others deemed suspicious. The new rules would mandate the disclosure of all money transfers, no matter how small.

 

The idea dates back to legislation adopted during the Bush years, when the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act was adopted to better organize the intelligence community. That law ordered the Treasury secretary to issue regulations governing cross-border transfers that might be financing terrorists.

 

The new regulation would cover about 750 million money transfers a year and would include all information about the sender and recipient, including social security numbers. All of this would be fed into a central database. Credit card and ATM transactions would not be covered.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Money Transfers Could Face Anti-Terrorism Scrutiny (by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post)

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) (AllGov)