FinCEN’s Innovation Initiative

Welcome to FinCEN's Innovation Initiative.

FinCEN’s Innovation Initiative seeks to promote innovation and enhance our national security through the promotion of responsible financial services innovation that furthers the purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), as amended by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.

Responsible innovation is an important part of safeguarding the U.S. financial system against new and evolving threats to the nation's security and the financial system related to money laundering, terrorist financing, and other serious financial crimes, particularly those FinCEN has identified as national priorities. Private sector innovation, either by new ways of using existing tools or by adopting new technologies, can help provide new and more efficient means of providing financial services to consumers and businesses, help financial institutions enhance their anti-money laundering (AML) compliance programs, and contribute to more effective and efficient record keeping and reporting under the BSA framework.

The current major components of FinCEN’s Innovation Initiative include:

Innovation Hours

Exceptive Relief

TechSprints

TechSprints and Events

U.S.-UK Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) Prize Challenges
July 2022-March 2023

Press Release (July 20, 2022)

FinCEN Acting Director’s Statement (June 13, 2022)

The U.S.-U.K. PETs Prize Challenges, first announced at the Summit for Democracy in December 2021, is a transatlantic TechSprint to spur innovation in the use of privacy-enhancing technologies. The Prize Challenges are led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.S. National Science Foundation along with the U.K.’s Center for Data Ethics and Innovation and Innovate U.K.. As part of the Prize Challenge focused on illicit finance, innovators will be able to engage with regulators, including FinCEN and the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority and Information Commissioner’s Office. For more information about the U.S.-UK PET Prize Challenge focused on Financial Crime, see here.

FinCEN’s Innovation Hours Program

FinCEN’s Innovation Hours Program is a key element of FinCEN’s Innovation Initiative and offers financial institutions, technology providers, venture capitalists, and other firms involved in financial services an opportunity to discuss and showcase their innovative products, services, investments, and business processes or approaches designed to enhance AML and the countering of the financing of terrorism (CFT) efforts or provide new financial services options to consumers and businesses. FinCEN’s Innovation Hours will foster a better mutual understanding between the public and private sectors of the opportunities and challenges associated with innovating in the financial services sector, including AML/CFT-related products and services.

For more information about FinCEN’s Innovation Hours Program, including the criteria to participate, please see Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

	Innovation Hours
Date:	2nd Thursday of each month
Time:	9:00am to 1:00pm
Location:	Virtual Meetings.

Request a Meeting!

To apply for an appointment please click on “Request a Meeting” below and provide your contact information and a summary of your reasons for requesting a meeting with FinCEN, including a description of your financial services-related innovation and its relationship to the BSA framework and related AML/CFT obligations or ability to enhance the nation's security. We strongly encourage firms founded, owned, or managed by underserved groups to apply.

Please note that FinCEN may not be able to accept all requests.

As a federal agency, FinCEN may not recommend or endorse the products of any company. Participation in the Innovation Hours Program does not constitute a recommendation, endorsement or other imprimatur by FinCEN. It is a federal offense for anyone to misuse or otherwise misrepresent through the use of an official department or agency seal that FinCEN endorses its products (18 U.S.C. § 506 and 18 U.S.C. § 1017 ). Vendors may not use the Innovation Hours Program to sell products and services to FinCEN or otherwise solicit contract opportunities. Companies may obtain more information regarding contract opportunities with FinCEN at https://www.fincen.gov/contract-opportunities