NYSSCPA Comments on "Monetary Instrument" for FinCEN

Submitted by rkoreto on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 09:55

The NYSSCPA's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Committee has issued a comment letter on the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposal to amend the definition of "monetary instrument" in the Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA").
 
According to a government statement, "FinCEN is proposing to amend the definition of 'monetary instrument' in the Bank Secrecy Act regulations for purposes of the international transport of currency and monetary instrument reporting requirement to include tangible prepaid access devices."
 
These devices, according to FinCEN, may include "general-use prepaid cards, gift cards, store cards, payroll cards, and government benefit cards. It also includes cell phones and other tangible devices to the extent that they themselves, or an item built into or attached to them, provide access to prepaid funds …"
 
Countless consumers have used such cards and devices for legitimate purposes, but FinCEN is concerned that terrorists and other criminals use them to smuggle cash, so for tracking purposes, FinCEN wants to consider these as cash equivalents.
 
The NYSSCPA committee addressed various issues in a 3.5-page comment letter. Among the committee's suggestions are:
 
  • Requiring that prepaid access instruments have different prefixes or suffixes in the card number that will differentiate the card or device from the traditional debit or credit card. This would allow these instruments to be easily identified as prepaid access instruments saving border agents and other law enforcement agencies the time it would take to scan all cards to identify which ones fall under the rule as proposed cash equivalents.
  • Not classifying closed-loop cards as a cash equivalent. These are cards that are good only in a specific place, unlike open-loop cards, which are good in a wide variety of outlets and thus more likely to be used as a cash equivalent than closed-loop cards.
 
The comment period runs until Dec. 16

 

Bookmark/Search this post with:

The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) encourages you to add a comment to this discussion.  You may not post any unlawful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law.  Please note that NYSSCPA reviews all comments prior to posting. NYSSCPA may edit comments for clarity or to keep out questionable or off-topic material.  All comments should be relevant to the post and remain respectful of other authors. To view the full “NYSSCPA Blog Terms and Conditions,” click here.