The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has been the subject of scrutiny for years over its lack of transparency. The agency recently started to provide some information to the public but that information largely confirms long-held suspicions, namely that the Bank Secrecy Act's mandatory financial surveillance is far from justified. To set the foundation, FinCEN's 2023 "Year in Review" report revealed that banks and other financial institutions filed 27.56 million reports under the Bank Secrecy Act during the 2023 fiscal year (Table 1). The vast majority of these reports (20.8 million) were filed as currency transaction reports, or CTRs, when people made a transaction of $10,000 or more. A long-standing issue has been whether mandating the filing of these millions of reports has been worthwhile. Billions of dollars are being spent in compliance with a regime that requires financial institutions to report millions of transactions. So, how many criminals are being caught?
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Table of Contents
- The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network FinCEN has been the subject 1
- To set the foundation FinCENʼs 2023 Year in Review report revealed 1
- A long-standing issue has been whether mandating the filing of these 1
- FinCENʼs report does not fully address this question but it does shine some 1
- Serviceʼs IRSʼs criminal investigations FinCEN reported that 13.9 percent 1
- 1. Thatʼs down from the 15.8 percent of investigations FinCEN reported 1
- Given that the IRS had 2676 criminal investigations during that time this 2
- Act report. In other words despite financial institutions spending 59 2
- Thatʼs not to say the data are useless. FinCENʼs report noted that 85.7 2
- Given itʼs the case that the majority of useful reports are only used after 2
- The Constitution was put in place to restrict the powers of government and 3
- Ultimately FinCENʼs report highlights what critics have long suspected 3
- FinCEN needs to address. However one thing is clear. Itʼs time for 3
- Americans to have protections that are in line with the framework crafted in 3