Notices to Members

December 10, 2003

USA PATRIOT Act Section 314(a) Information Requests

On September 26, 2002, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule under Section 314(a) of the USA PATRIOT Act that established a process by which law enforcement agencies, through FinCEN, request information from financial institutions regarding individuals, entities or organizations that were suspected of engaging in money laundering or terrorist financing. After a brief moratorium, FinCEN has been sending these requests every two weeks since February 18, 2003.

FinCEN is currently limiting the requests to FCM Members. All FCM Members should be receiving this request from FinCEN, either by e-mail or facsimile, every two weeks (on Tuesday). It has recently come to NFA's attention that some FCMs are not receiving these requests and other FCMs would prefer if the request was directed to a different person at their firm. In addition, FinCEN prefers to send these requests by e-mail and some of the contact information FinCEN currently has for certain FCMs only includes facsimile numbers. In order to resolve these issues, please send an e-mail to dchristman@nfa.futures.org by December 15, 2003 and provide the following information: Member firm name, point of contact name and title, mailing and e-mail address and telephone and facsimile numbers.

Member FCMs should also keep in mind that all information requests received from FinCEN pursuant to Section 314(a) of the PATRIOT Act are confidential. FCMs may not disclose to anyone the fact that FinCEN has requested or obtained information under Section 314(a), except to the extent necessary to comply with the request.

If you have any questions on these requirements, please contact Carol Wooding, Assistant General Counsel at 312-781-1409 or Sharon Pendleton, Associate Director, Compliance at 312-648-6540.