|
|
Since March 1, 2005, Financial Institutions' Section 314(a) points
of contact should be receiving biweekly e-mail notifications about
new information available on the SISS Web site for their review.
Section 314(a) of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-56) required
the Secretary of the Treasury to adopt regulations encouraging regulatory
authorities and law enforcement authorities to share with financial
institutions information about individuals, entities and organizations
engaged in or reasonably suspected of, based on credible evidence,
engaging in terrorist acts or money laundering activities. FinCEN's
regulations under Section 314(a) enable federal law enforcement
agencies, through FinCEN, to transmit requests to designated contacts
within financial institutions across the country. The financial
institutions are required to query their records for data matches.
Usage statistics for the SISS have been provided to the FDIC. Current
results indicate that a number of FDIC-supervised institutions are
not registered to access the site, and a number of registered institutions
have not logged on to SISS since their initial registration. There
are also a number of financial institutions that receive e-mail
notifications from FinCEN stating new information has been posted
to the SISS, but have not yet registered on the new system. The
registration process can be completed here.
If you use a third-party vendor or product to conduct searches,
your institution is still required to log on and review the information
on the SISS. SISS can only be accessed by the financial institution's
designated Section 314(a) points of contact.
Banks receiving FinCEN information by fax are not impacted, and
will continue to receive information by fax unless they ask to receive
the Section 314(a) notifications via e-mail. Changes to Section
314(a) point of contact information must be made through the quarterly
Call Report. For more information, contact the FDIC at (800) 688-FDIC
or insurance-research@fdic.gov
or FinCEN’s Regulatory Help Line at 1-800-949-2732.
Refer to the FDIC
site for more details on this subject.
Contact Nichols,
Cauley & Associates by Email,
phone, or online
form with your questions.
Site visitors should keep in mind
that the content is generally designed to be of general applicability.
Particular state laws, regulations and special contractual provisions
can greatly impact rights, responsibilities and legal obligations.
Only a competent attorney, accountant or other professional looking
at all the pertinent facts and circumstances of a particular situation
can provide definitive guidance for you. Please refer to our important
legal discalimer which can be accessed from the bottom of any BankAudit.net
webpage.
|
 |
|
|
