Regulatory Alerts2004-12-23
Added
Interpretive Release No. 2004-02 - Unitary Filing of Suspicious Activity and Blocking Reports
FinCEN clarifies that filing a blocking report with OFAC for transactions involving Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Specially Designated Terrorists, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker Kingpins, or Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers satisfies the requirement to file a suspicious activity report for the fact of the match. This unitary filing approach eliminates duplicative reporting burdens on financial institutions by deeming the OFAC filing sufficient for FinCEN's suspicious activity reporting rules. However, financial institutions must still file a separate suspicious activity report if the transaction is independently suspicious under FinCEN rules or if they possess information not included in the blocking report. This interpretation does not apply to blocking reports related to transactions involving persons owned by or nationals of countries subject to OFAC-administered sanctions programs.