International Financial Crime: Treasury's Roles and Responsibilities Relating to Selected Provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act
Highlights
Money laundering and terrorist financing can severely affect the nation's economy and also result in loss of lives. To combat these transnational crimes, the Treasury Department (Treasury) and its component bureau, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), have key roles. Section 330 of the USA PATRIOT Act encourages the federal government to engage foreign jurisdictions in negotiations to ensure that foreign banks and financial institutions maintain adequate records to combat international financial crime. Treasury plays a lead role in facilitating such efforts. In accordance with its various responsibilities codified by section 361, FinCEN is to coordinate with its foreign counterparts--financial intelligence units (FIU). This report describes (1) Treasury's approach for negotiating with foreign jurisdictions, (2) how FinCEN has contributed to establishing FIUs in foreign countries and enhancing the capabilities of these units, and (3) what actions FinCEN is taking to maximize its performance as a global partner.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Crimes Enforcement Network | The Director of FinCEN should take appropriate steps in developing and administering future customer satisfaction surveys to help ensure more comprehensive coverage of and higher response rates from FIUs. For example, such steps could include pretesting the survey instrument and following-up with nonresponding FIUs. |
Closed – Implemented
We found that FinCEN's most recent customer satisfaction survey (conducted in 2005) of its global partners--financial intelligence units (FIUs)--had limited coverage and generated only two responses. We recommended that the Director of FinCEN take steps to ensure more comprehensive coverage and higher response rates in future surveys. As corrective measures, in its 2006 survey, FinCEN stratified the survey population, sent advance notification, and also sent a follow-up reminder. As a result, the number of FIU responses (39) in 2006 reflected an almost twenty-fold increase over 2005.
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