WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Treasury Department has expanded guidance on how financial institutions can share information about suspected fraud, a move aimed at strengthening the banking sector’s ability to identify and disrupt criminal activity before losses spread across multiple institutions.
The guidance, issued by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), clarifies that financial institutions participating in the information-sharing framework established under Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act may exchange information related to suspected fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and other specified unlawful activities.
The update comes as financial fraud continues to impose significant costs on consumers, businesses, and financial institutions, with regulators increasingly emphasizing collaboration between banks as a tool for detecting emerging threats.
According to FinCEN, institutions may share information with other eligible financial institutions when seeking to identify and report potentially illicit activity.
The agency also clarified that institutions may exchange a broader range of data associated with suspected criminal conduct, including video surveillance footage, cyber-related information such as IP addresses, and behavioral indicators that may signal fraudulent activity.
Examples cited by FinCEN include the addition of new payees followed by large transfers, multiple accounts using similar identifying information, and account access from geographically distant locations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described financial institutions as a critical first line of defense against fraud because they often detect suspicious activity in real time.
“Americans lose hundreds of billions of dollars to fraud each year,” Bessent said. “They need the tools to act quickly and share information that can help stop fraud before it spreads.”
The guidance forms part of a broader federal anti-fraud initiative that includes participation by Treasury in the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President JD Vance.
Federal officials have increasingly encouraged greater information sharing among banks and other financial institutions as cybercrime, account takeover schemes, payment fraud, and other forms of financial crime become more sophisticated and interconnected.
FinCEN stated that enhanced information sharing supports broader efforts to modernize anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing programs by allowing institutions to focus resources on higher-risk activities and customers while improving the detection of illicit financial networks.
FinCEN published a fact sheet outlining the updated guidance and examples of permissible information sharing at https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/shared/314bfactsheet.pdf.
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