FinCEN dons its steel hat - again

First,it was the computer system that did not work, then it was staff leaving in droves; then it was budget worries, then the USA PATRIOT Act hinted at a downgrading of FinCEN; then came the revelations (not clarified by either side) that some reports had been made relating to some of the participants in the 11 Sept events.

Recently, FinCEN announced that it was not satisfied that transaction based reporting produced good enough results, especially taking into account the cost to govermnents and banks (and despite the fact that FinCEN had been a forceful advocate of the system when "advising" developing countries on appropriate laws) and, as if that was not enough, a forgery of FinCEN letterhead is doing the rounds in a Nigerian Scam type fraud.

But now comes the word that FinCEN watchers had been waiting for. The US Treasury is to form a new department to deal with the co-ordination of counter-money laundering, counter terrorist financing and anti-organised crime funding. The story will unfold over the next few weeks.