News Releases
12/15/2003 Travel Rule to Expire July 2004
Travel Rule Exception to Expire in July; Mailing Addresses Still Accepted
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has given notice that the Travel Rule
exception to funds transmittal requirements will permanently expire on July
1, 2004. Thereafter, institutions will not be able to use coded information
or pseudonyms for the name of a customer in a funds transmittal order. Nevertheless,
abbreviated names, names reflecting different accounts of a corporation, trade
names, and assumed names of businesses or names of unincorporated divisions
or departments of businesses can be used. Industry commenters had objected strenuously
to any requirement for giving street addresses instead of mailing addresses,
noting that this would require banks to examine each address and compare it
with other customer information maintained by the bank, which would often be
a manual and expensive process. FinCEN has determined that “the
Travel Rule should be read to allow the use of mailing addresses.â€
However, “under no circumstances may a financial institution
use its own address or another financial institution's address in place of the
customer's address.†FinCEN anticipates issuing a new set
of frequently asked questions and answers on the funds transfer rules. The notice
and subsequent releases will be analyzed in the USA PATRIOT Act Monitor.
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