VIENNA, Va. – Since its launch exactly one year ago today, more than 18,000 people have subscribed to FinCEN Updates – the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN’s) free e-mail subscription management service. As of today, 18,071 members of the financial industry, the media and the public use FinCEN Updates to stay abreast of news, rulemakings, advisories, and other developments. FinCEN is committed to affirmatively reaching out to financial institutions and providing them with useful business information; feedback on regulations; and examples of how BSA information is used by FinCEN analysts, regulators and law enforcement agencies.
“FinCEN Updates is a useful tool to bring information directly to our stakeholders,” said FinCEN Director James H. Freis, Jr. “This service supports our effort to ensure that we quickly and accurately communicate our news, rules, guidance, and feedback to the industry.”
FinCEN Updates allows users to choose their subscription preferences from a list of items that includes advisories, guidance, news releases, rulings, enforcement actions, and current career opportunities at FinCEN. Of the 25 topics to which users can subscribe, the most popular appear to be BSA Guidance (12,538 subscriptions), SAR Information (12,236 subscriptions) and Advisories/Bulletins/Rulings/Fact Sheets (12,223 subscriptions).
Over the past year, FinCEN has used FinCEN Updates to send alerts on a variety of topics, including an assessment of money laundering in the commercial real estate industry; guidance to financial institutions on the increasing money laundering threat involving illicit Iranian activity; and most recently, a number of frequently asked questions for casinos. FinCEN has sent 709,577 total emails alerting users to these various announcements.
FinCEN selected GovDelivery ® E-mail Subscription Management Service to monitor designated Web content and to send an e-mail to alert subscribers when new information is posted on FinCEN’s public websites. Subscribers can opt to have FinCEN Updates sent immediately, daily, weekly or monthly to their email accounts or directly to a wireless device. FinCEN was the first federal agency to utilize GovDelivery’s wireless alert feature, which allows subscribers to receive alerts on any text message enabled device such as a cell phone.
To subscribe to FinCEN Updates, visit www.fincen.gov or subscribe directly at http://service.govdelivery.com/service/multi_subscribe.html?code=USFINCEN.