Today, CUNA submitted comments
to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) regarding their Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking on information collection and reporting requirements
for certain transactions involving Convertible Virtual Currency (CVC) or Legal
Tender Digital Assets (LTDA).
Specifically, this proposed rule would require compliance
with recordkeeping and reporting requirements for certain suspect deposits,
withdrawals, exchanges, or other payments or transfers of CVC or LTDA by,
through, or to a bank or money service business that involve an “unhosted”
wallet (a cybercurrency wallet that is not hosted by a third-party financial
system) or an “otherwise covered wallet,” (a hosted wallet located in a
jurisdiction designated by FinCEN as having anti-money laundering compliance
problems, such as North Korea and Iran). By in large, the recordkeeping
requirements for these CVC and LTDA transactions are similar to existing rules
for wire transfers over $3,000. Similarly, the reporting requirements are
similar to the Currency Transaction Report (CTR) rules in place for currency
withdrawls over $10,000.
In our letter, we reiterated our general support for
FinCEN’s anti-money laundering (AML) goals, but expressed our concerns that
FinCEN dispensed with the normal notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements for
this proposed rule and provided a shortened 15-day comment period during the
holiday season. Accordingly, we requested an extension to the comment
period so credit unions and the Leagues can better evaluate the proposal and
submit comments that would improve it. In addition, we specifically pointed out
that exemptions related to currency should be carried over to CVCs and LTDAs
and that any new requirements should not be fully implemented until credit
unions can determine if they currently have the technological capabilities for
collecting, tracking and reporting the requested information about
counterparties. The required information collection includes:
- The name and address of
the financial institution’s customer;
- The type of CVC or LTDA
used in the transaction;
- The amount of CVC or
LTDA in the transaction;
- The time of the
transaction;
- The assessed value of
the transaction, in U.S. Dollars, based on the prevailing exchange rate at
the time of the transaction;
- Any payment instructions
received from the financial institution’s customer;
- The name and physical
address of each counterparty to the transaction of the financial
institution’s customer;
- Other counterparty
information the Secretary may prescribe as mandatory on the reporting form
for transactions subject to reporting pursuant to § 1010.316(b);
- Any other information
that uniquely identifies the transaction, the accounts, and, to the extent
reasonably available, the parties involved; and,
- Any form relating to the
transaction that is completed or signed by the financial institution’s
customer.
Please contact Damon Smith at dsmith@cuna.coop or 202-235-3390 with any
questions.