Requirement for Information Sharing Between Government Agencies and Financial Institutions ("314(a)")

The USA PATRIOT Act charged the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) with developing regulations to facilitate information sharing among government entities and financial institutions for the purpose of combatting terrorism and money laundering. In 2002, FinCEN published a final rule implementing the authority contained in Section 314(a) of the USA PATRIOT Act (the Section 314(a) Rule). The rule required financial institutions, upon FinCEN’s request (a “Section 314(a) Request”), to search their records to determine whether they have maintained an account or conducted a transaction with a specified individual, entity, or organization that a Federal law enforcement agency has certified is suspected, based on credible evidence, of engaging in terrorist activity or money laundering. The rule was expanded in 2010 to enable certain agencies other than Federal law enforcement agencies to initiate Section 314(a) Requests. As amended, the rule enables certain foreign law enforcement agencies, state and local law enforcement agencies, and FinCEN itself, on its own behalf and on behalf of appropriate components of Treasury, to initiate Section 314(a) Requests. Before processing a request, FinCEN requires the requesting agency to certify that, in the case of money laundering, the matter is significant, and that the requesting agency has been unable to locate the information sought through traditional methods of investigation and analysis. The regulations implementing the rules are found at 31 CFR 1010.520.

The latest form for Requirement for Information Sharing Between Government Agencies and Financial Institutions ("314(a)") expires 2028-02-29 and can be found here.