On December 1, 2016, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published in the Federal Register a supplement to the final rule imposing a prohibition on covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for, or on behalf of, FBME Bank, Ltd. On September 20, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order remanding to FinCEN the final rule imposing a prohibition on covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for, or on behalf of, FBME Bank, Ltd. In its memorandum opinion accompanying that order, the Court stated that the agency had not responded meaningfully to FBME’s comments regarding the agency’s treatment of aggregate Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) data. The Court found that those comments challenged FinCEN’s interpretation of SAR data on at least four distinct grounds. In the supplement to the final rule, FinCEN provides further explanation addressing FBME’s comments.
