I read in a publication yesterday that the regulators were advising institutions not to keep copies of the 314.a lists after they had been checked. Does any one know where I can find this instruction in writing from a regulator - hopefully from the FDIC?

I don't think there's anything in writing but if you do a search on the topic, you will find that most banks are keeping them.

We have discussed this before as others have been told this too. But I have yet to see it in writing.

This wouldn't make sense. If you don't retain these records, how will you ever demonstate compliance?

If the examiner has a complete list they could do a search of your records and determine if you had any hits. Those hits would have evidence of reporting. No hits = no records. Obviously that takes more time and there is no record of who checked what and it makes self-auditing impossible.

I was hoping written procedures about who, how, and when the lists are checked would be evidence enough. The examiner could interview the people who are supposed to be doing the checking. As it is we can keep the lists and mark that they are checked without actually doing the work - that is completely theoretical, of course.

Link to prior thread which contains a link to another prior thread.

I just spoke to an OCC examiner who does compliance exams for Chicago area banks. He stated to keep these records as well as proof they were checked, because they will most certainly review them when they come in to do an exam. He also wanted a cite of where it was stated not to keep them, he stated he had never heard of destroying this info after it was checked.

Here is a quote from the FinCEN faq's issued on August 29th: "You also should not maintain the list of named subjects for the purpose of evaluating whether to open or to conduct a transaction, unless specific instructions accompanying a 314(a) request state otherwise."

I think this may be the point of confusion, and why people say not to retain the lists. However if you look at the italicized portion it seems, IMHO, that you can--without fear of breaking with compliance--retain a list if you do not use it for purposes other than documentation of conducting a search.

A lot of the confusion is coming from speakers representing the regulatory agencies who are saying to not keep these. I maintain that if they want this to be their official position, they know how to tell us. Currently we are getting mixed messages as they have to know we will initially be retaining these lists for accountability.

One suggestion made was to keep a list of the FinCEN tracking number with an indication as to whether there were any hits or not for the particular names that came with the tracking number.

However, if you think about it, the fact that FinCEN has e-mailed the list to you, you can never entirely destroy the list. You can delete your e-mail, but it can still be recovered.

I read a two page article in the Times about the USA PATRIOT Act under attack by both conservative and liberal groups in this country. The amusing part was the article focused almost exclusively on libraries and book stores resisting any requests for customer reading habits. There was nothing about what banks are required to report.

We use Homeland Tracker and put all the 314-a names in a separate deny list. That's the only place they are right now and only two of us in the bank have access to the list.
Just completed our S & S exam and no one asked how we are handling 314-a request, just if we are responding to them.