Fincen yesterday issued a statement regarding the extent to which banks should terminate the accounts of MSB’s.
The statement declared:
MSBs play an important role in a transparent financial system, particularly because they often provide financial services to people less likely to use traditional banking services and because of their prominent role in providing remittance services. FinCEN believes it is important to reiterate the fact that banking organizations can serve the MSB industry while meeting their Bank Secrecy Act obligations
Banks as such will now find it harder to justify MSB account closure. Whilst the statement did not give safe-harbour to banks, it does accentuate the extent to which banks have been encouraged to give MSB’s leeway.