Oversight of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of... (EventID=115822)

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Connect with the House Financial Services Committee Get the latest news: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseFinanci... Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSCDems ___________________________________ On Thursday, April 27, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. (ET) Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Chair Congressman Luetkemeyer and Ranking Member Congresswoman Beatty will host a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI)." ___________________________________ Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be: • Mr. Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, U.S. Department of the Treasury • Mr. Himamuli (Him) Das, Acting Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) ___________________________________ Terrorism and Illicit Finance The U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) has a dedicated office to develop and implement official U.S. government efforts to combat the financing of terrorism (CFT). The Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) was established in 2004 to marshal Treasury’s policy, enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence functions “with the twin aims of safeguarding the financial system against illicit use and combating rouge nations, terrorist facilitators… and other national security threats.” TFI is led by Undersecretary Brian Nelson, and is comprised of the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (TFFC), the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture (TEOAF). TFFC is the policy development and outreach office for TFI, which, among other priorities, leads the U.S. delegation to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). OIA, which is a formal member of the U.S. Intelligence Community, contributes all-source financial threat assessments and products. OIA’s analysts have been central in interagency efforts to address terrorist financing such as the Afghanistan and Iraq Threat Finance Cells. OFAC administers multiple sanctions programs to block transactions and freeze assets within the United States of specified foreign terrorist, criminal, and political entities, including specially designated individuals and nation states. FinCEN is a separate Treasury Bureau which reports to the Undersecretary for TFI. FinCEN administers the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) for Treasury, including collecting and analyzing data on financial crimes, investigating violations of the BSA, and enforcing penalties for BSA violations. Both FinCEN and OFAC pre-date the formation of TFI. Terrorist Financing Terrorist financing describes a type of financial crime, in which an individual or entity solicits, collects, or provides funds “with the intention that [these funds] may be used to support terrorist acts or organizations.” The U.S. government’s overall counterterrorism strategy is guided by the 2011 National Strategy for Counterterrorism, which encourages expanding and enhancing “efforts aimed at blocking the flow of financial resources to and among terrorist groups and to disrupt terrorist facilitation and support activities….” According to FATF, the international standard-setting body for anti-money laundering (AML) and CFT safeguards, the most common sources of terrorist financing include state sponsors, private donors, charitable entities, selffunding mechanisms, and various criminal activities like drug trafficking. Recognizing that terrorists, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), frequently grow as new and better methods offunding and finance arise, FATF re-evaluated terrorist financing methods in late-2015. FATF found that groups are increasingly fundraising through social media, the exploitation of new payment products like virtual currencies, and the appropriation of natural resources and cultural items for profit. According to Treasury, these threats collectively represent a source of risk generally to the United States, and to the financial system in particular. Specifically, Treasury concludes: [t]he central role of the U.S. financial system within the international financial system and the sheer volume and diversity of international financial transactions that in some way pass through U.S. financial institutions expose the U.S. financial system to TF [terrorist financing] risks that other financial systems may not face. The three most common methods terrorists use to move money are: (1) the physical movement of cash; (2) the movement of funds through the banking system and non-bank financial institutions; and (3) the misuse of the international trade system.10 Given the... Hearing page: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/events/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=410330