The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued updated guidance aimed at strengthening collaboration among financial institutions in the fight against fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit financial activities. The revised guidance provides greater clarity on how institutions can share information under Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act, enabling them to detect and prevent financial crime more effectively.
The update comes as financial fraud continues to pose a significant challenge to the United States economy, with Americans losing hundreds of billions of dollars each year to increasingly sophisticated scams. Treasury officials say the enhanced guidance is designed to help banks and other eligible financial institutions identify suspicious activity earlier, improve coordination across the financial sector, and disrupt criminal networks before fraudulent schemes can spread.
Announcing the initiative, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized the critical role financial institutions play in identifying suspicious transactions in real time. He noted that financial institutions are often the first to detect warning signs of fraud and therefore require clear legal frameworks and practical tools to exchange information swiftly with one another. According to Bessent, the updated guidance reflects the Administration’s broader commitment to combating financial fraud and protecting both taxpayers and consumers through stronger public-private cooperation.
At the heart of the guidance is FinCEN’s clarification of the scope of information-sharing permitted under Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act. The agency confirmed that participating financial institutions may exchange information concerning suspected fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and other specified unlawful activities with any other institution eligible to participate in the Section 314(b) information-sharing program. The clarification is intended to remove uncertainty surrounding the types of information that can be shared while reinforcing existing legal protections for institutions participating in the program.
To support implementation, FinCEN has also released a detailed fact sheet outlining practical examples of information that institutions may exchange. These include video surveillance footage related to suspicious activity, cyber-related information such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and behavioural fraud indicators that may help identify emerging criminal schemes. Examples include newly added payment beneficiaries followed by unusually large fund transfers, multiple customer accounts using the same or similar identifying information, and account login attempts originating from geographically distant locations within short timeframes. By explicitly identifying these examples, FinCEN aims to encourage more proactive information sharing across the financial sector.
Treasury officials highlighted that the guidance forms part of the Administration’s broader, whole-of-government strategy to combat fraud. As a member of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, led by Vice President JD Vance, the Treasury Department is working alongside federal agencies to leverage every available resource to detect, prevent, and respond to fraudulent activity targeting individuals, businesses, and government programs.
The revised guidance also aligns with Treasury’s ongoing efforts to modernize the United States’ anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework. Officials say greater collaboration between financial institutions will help create a more risk-based and outcomes-focused compliance environment, allowing institutions to devote more attention and resources to higher-risk customers, transactions, and emerging threats rather than applying uniform compliance measures across all activities.
FinCEN reiterated that voluntary information sharing under Section 314(b) remains a vital component of the nation’s financial crime prevention strategy. The agency strongly encourages eligible financial institutions to actively share information relating not only to fraud but also to money laundering, terrorist financing, and other criminal activities whenever appropriate. According to the agency, enhanced information sharing strengthens national and economic security while improving the financial sector’s ability to identify illicit networks operating across multiple institutions.
The updated guidance is expected to provide financial institutions with greater confidence in using Section 314(b) authorities, ultimately fostering faster detection of suspicious activity, improving inter-institutional collaboration, and enhancing the overall resilience of the U.S. financial system against evolving financial crime threats.
By FCCT Editorial Team
, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and those fleeing to Chad between late April and late June 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The assailants appear to have targeted people because of their Massalit ethnicity and, in some cases, because they were known activists.){kind=link}