In recent testimony to Congress, Robert Werner, FinCEN's Chief of Staff, described FinCEN has having four primary missions: regulatory, financial intelligence, law enforcement support, and networking. With respect to changing how we identify and prosecute terrorists and other criminals, FinCEN's intelligence and networking activities have great promise.
In his testimony, Werner gave an example of how FINCEN has used networking to facilitate an investigation. Recently, a bank contacted FINCen's Hotline about a customer's suspicious activity. The bank was concerned because of a sudden and dramatic jump in the customer's deposits. Through networking, FinCEN learned that the customer was wanted by authorities as a "deportable felon."
In the intelligence area, FinCEN is devoting analysts to study BSA data and other information. The goal is to increase our knowledge about patterns that could indicate terrorist funding. As Werner put it, FinCEN must move away from emphasis on data checks and retrieval while moving toward "more robust and sophisticated analysis."
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