Industry-Wide (all financial institutions)

In December 2020, FinCEN published new guidance on Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act, encouraging financial institutions to make greater use of voluntary information-sharing mechanisms for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing purposes. The guidance highlighted the legal safe harbor protections available to participating institutions and underscored the value of collaborative approaches to identifying suspicious activity. While not specifically targeting bank-fintech partnerships, the guidance is relevant to BaaS models where sponsor banks and their fintech partners must coordinate on BSA/AML compliance. The guidance did not reference any enforcement actions but signaled FinCEN's expectation that institutions—including those with fintech relationships—should leverage available tools for information sharing.

Verified from source: On December 10, 2020, FinCEN Director Kenneth Blanco announced new guidance encouraging covered financial institutions to utilize the voluntary information sharing provisions of Section 314(b) of the USA Patriot Act, emphasizing the breadth of the provision and its civil liability protections for compliant institutions.