December 08, 2010 11:30 AM Eastern Time 

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101208006309/en/Florida-International-Bankers-Association-Anti-Money-Laundering

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Just last month the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule that strengthened the confidentiality of suspicious activity reports. As FinCEN Director James H. Freis, put it, "It is essential to the partnership between the financial industry and government that sensitive financial information reported to FinCEN be protected." One thing the final rule makes clear is that FinCEN does not intend to give banks special permission to disclose the existence of SARs when defending themselves against lawsuits brought by victims of fraud schemes.

"FinCEN believes that in most legal proceedings, a filing institution that would benefit from the disclosure of a SAR would benefit comparably with evidence from underlying facts, transactions, and documents. Consequently, FinCEN does not intend to establish procedures for submitting such a request in this rulemaking," the final rule suggests.

At the same time, FinCEN issued guidance giving depository institutions and the securities and futures industries more leeway to share SARs within their organizations. Banks, broker-dealers, mutual funds, futures commission merchants and introducing brokers in commodities have for several years been permitted to share SARs with head offices and parent companies. However, the new guidance allows the sharing of a SAR with a domestic affiliate if the affiliate is itself subject to a SAR rule. Unfortunately, the FinCEN guidance still does not allow SAR sharing with foreign affiliates.

SAR sharing with the head office, across borders, and within the institution continues to be an important topic for compliance officers who need to identify and share information about suspicious activity on an enterprise-wide basis. The Florida International Bankers Association is well aware of the importance of this issue to the banking community in Miami and beyond. Therefore, FIBA's upcoming AML conference will address the topic, helping its members to bolster their compliance and get the most out of their SAR-sharing regimes. This FIBA seminar will give you the latest information on what is now permitted by FinCEN and what changes you can or cannot expect moving forward.

Institutions that fail to take full advantage of SAR-sharing opportunities risk a disconnected approach to compliance and put their anti-money laundering programs at a disadvantage. FIBA's experts have years of experience and have studied carefully FinCEN's new rule and guidance. They will share their analysis with delegates at the FIBA AML Conference in Miami on February 24-25, 2011.