On Friday, Eastern Time, FinCEN and the Federal Reserve Board filed a joint notice withdrawing the proposal issued in October 2020, formally scrapping it. The proposal would have required financial institutions to collect and retain identifying information about remitters for cross-border transfers over $250, lowering the threshold from $3,000 to $250 and explicitly bringing convertible virtual currency within its scope. The withdrawal takes effect on November 9, and the $3,000 threshold will remain in place.
The proposal drew nearly 3,000 comments, with objections focused on compliance costs and the overly broad scope of information retention. Regulators also failed to demonstrate that lowering the threshold would yield tangible anti-money-laundering benefits.
The timing is also worth noting. Last month, the Treasury Department withdrew two proposals related to self-hosted wallets and mixers. Several proposed expansions of authority that had been under consideration since 2020 are now being put to rest at the same time. Coin Center said these withdrawals bring to a close long-unresolved efforts to expand the BSA surveillance regime. Ji Hun Kim of the Crypto Council for Innovation called the withdrawal the right decision, saying that lowering the threshold from $3,000 to $250 would place an unnecessary burden on institutions.
The notice included one caveat: if the rules are revised in the future, the public will be consulted again before a final rule is issued. For cross-border assets like $BTC , information-retention requirements for small transfers will remain unchanged.
The proposal drew nearly 3,000 comments, with objections focused on compliance costs and the overly broad scope of information retention. Regulators also failed to demonstrate that lowering the threshold would yield tangible anti-money-laundering benefits.
The timing is also worth noting. Last month, the Treasury Department withdrew two proposals related to self-hosted wallets and mixers. Several proposed expansions of authority that had been under consideration since 2020 are now being put to rest at the same time. Coin Center said these withdrawals bring to a close long-unresolved efforts to expand the BSA surveillance regime. Ji Hun Kim of the Crypto Council for Innovation called the withdrawal the right decision, saying that lowering the threshold from $3,000 to $250 would place an unnecessary burden on institutions.
The notice included one caveat: if the rules are revised in the future, the public will be consulted again before a final rule is issued. For cross-border assets like $BTC , information-retention requirements for small transfers will remain unchanged.
