The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed to amend the Bank Secrecy Act's (BSA) definition of "Broker or Dealer in Securities" to include funding portals in order to ensure that funding portals implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with the BSA requirements, including the filing of suspicious activity reports, currently applicable to brokers or dealers in securities.
The BSA regulatory definitions of broker or dealer in securities do not include funding portals. The current BSA regulations define broker-dealers in securities as being those persons "registered, or required to be registered, as a broker or dealer with the SEC under the 1934 Act." The JOBS Act also exempted certain funding portals from the 1934 Act's registration requirements, thus excluding them from the BSA's definition of brokers or dealers in securities. After consulting the SEC, FinCEN is proposing to amend the relevant BSA definitions to include funding portals, and therefore retain access to the important reports and records that these businesses may provide to combat money laundering and terrorist finance.
The proposed amendments are available here: https://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/frn/pdf/2016-07345.pdf.
Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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