Since the March 1, 2005, implementation of the Secure Information Sharing
System (SISS), 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 at https://www.fincen.gov/314a/.
SISS can only be accessed by the financial institution's designated Section
314(a) points of contact. 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.
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 (800) 688-FDIC or insurance-research@fdic.gov.
Please distribute this information to the appropriate personnel in your
institution. For further information, please contact FinCEN's Regulatory
Help Line at 1-800-949-2732 or sys314a@fincen.treas.gov.
|
Michael J.
Zamorski
Director
Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection
|