FinCEN Released Year In Review For Fiscal Year 2023

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has released its Annual Report for the Fiscal Year 2023.

The document is designed to help the target audience convey information regarding the effectiveness of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data collection and usage, as well as marking FinCEN’s contribution to assisting law enforcement and national security organizations.

How law enforcement agencies run and use that information is also highlighted in the report. It also describes how FinCEN employs and leverages BSA reporting to accomplish the agency’s mission in providing alerts, trend analyses, as well as enforcement actions, and more.

This publication also complies with FinCEN’s transparency policy of availing information and statistics on the effectiveness of BSA reporting, in compliance with the provisions of Section 6201 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.

Rising SARs & CTRs Filed

The 2023 report from the FinCEN shows a massive increase in the reporting of financial-related crimes, globally, with about 4.6 million Suspicious Activity Reports and 20.8 million Currency Transaction Reports filed.

There was concentrated reporting from significant institutions, as evidenced by the fact that the top 10 filers accounted for 48% of SARs and 39% of CTRs.

Support to FBI Investigations

FinCEN data had proved to be useful in assisting nearly 15.42% of FBI’s active investigations, with notable impacts on specific programs, like;

• 36.9% of organized crime drug enforcement’s active investigations were linked to SARs and CTRs.
• Among the active investigational cases, 33.8% of complex financial crime was revealed in the reports.
• This data supported 22.1% of active cases at a given moment for transnational organized crime.
• 27. 6% of public corruption investigations revealed.
• 14. 8% of international terrorism investigations reported.

Effective Information-Sharing Programs

The Section 314(a) program allowed federal, state, local, and some foreign law enforcement agencies to identify accounts and transactions related to terrorism or money laundering.

Section 314(b) managed to attract 7,790 registered financial institutions with more than 26400 SARs containing reference to this section.

Rapid Response Program Achievements

FinCEN’s Rapid Response Program (RRP) has managed to respond to 686 requests from 88 jurisdictions outside the USA in freezing $100 million, proving the program’s effectiveness against cyber-enabled financial crime.

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Extensive Training & Outreach

The report also emphasizes FinCEN’s commitment to education and awareness by highlighting significant training initiatives, with 20,818 BSA users trained across 515 programs and 63 beneficial ownership information (BOI) outreach events held.

Public-Private Partnership Initiatives

FinCEN completed 14 exchanges with other agencies that addressed noteworthy issues including Russia-related matters, digital innovation of financial products, corruption, and human smuggling.

Also, there were four civil money penalties which amounted to $60,780,829 were released.

Technological Advancements

Through the goAML central information system, the study revealed the possible enhancement of data retrieval and analytical functions of the agency and assets to FinCEN’s operations.

Awards And Recognition

The cases handled by FinCEN had a law enforcement awards program with five awards given out and focusing on the essential contribution of the BSA reporting in the law enforcement industry.

Thus, the FY 2023 report of FinCEN, underlines how this national agency has acted as a critical pillar in safeguarding the financial system against such criminal conduct as well as in strengthening national security by employing strategically designed financial intelligence which also aims at promoting effective public-private partnerships.

To read the full report you can visit FinCEN FY 2023 report.