FinCEN releases guidance on foreign information sharing

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and U.S. banking agencies released guidance on Monday for financial institutions on how to share financial information with their counterparts in other countries without running afoul of the Bank Secrecy Act.

The guidance is meant to encourage “appropriate, voluntary cross-border sharing of information” between financial institutions to help combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit finance activity, according to the document. The guidance seeks to clarify that the BSA generally does not prohibit cross-border information sharing. It also provides examples of information that typically would not reveal the existence of a suspicious activity report and, as a result, is not prohibited from sharing.