Reports of transactions with
foreign financial agencies (31 CFR 1010.360).
Extension without change of a currently approved collection
No
Regular
07/31/2025
Requested
Previously Approved
36 Months From Approved
07/31/2025
240
84
40,500
11,914
0
0
The Secretary is authorized to require
any “resident or citizen of the United States or a person in, and
doing business in, the United States, to keep records, file
reports, or keep records and file reports, when the resident,
citizen, or person makes a transaction or maintains a relation for
any person with a foreign financial agency.” The term “foreign
financial agency” (FFA) applies to an action outside the United
States of a “financial agency,” which the statute defines as “a
person acting for a person . . . as a financial institution,
bailee, depository trustee, or agent, or acting in a similar way
related to money, credit, securities, gold, a transaction in money,
credit, securities or gold, or a service provided with respect to
money, securities, futures, precious metals, stones and jewels, or
value that substitutes for currency.” The Secretary is also
authorized to prescribe exemptions to the reporting requirement and
to prescribe other matters the Secretary considers necessary to
carry out 31 U.S.C. 5314. The regulations implementing these
authorities to require reports of transactions with FFAs are found
at 31 CFR 1010.360.
FinCEN estimates reflect a
number of changes since the most recent prior OMB control number
renewal which affected both the anticipated time burden associated
with regulatory compliance activities and the expected costs. The
estimated total annual burden hours increased from an estimate of
11,914 hours in 2022 to 40,500 hours in 2025. This is due to
several factors, but most notably reflects updating on the basis of
the most recent period of historical data used to estimate the
anticipated annual response burden of FFA requests. In the most
recent three-year look-back period, FFA regulations have been
issued with greater frequency and with respect to a larger number
of FFAs per regulation, on average. Due to the increased frequency
in the issuance of FFA regulations, FinCEN’s estimate of the number
of regulations per year increased to 4 from the estimate of
approximately 1.33 in 2022. The average number of FFAs covered per
regulation also increased from an average of 7 per request in
2019-2021 to an average of 50 per request in 2022-2024.
Consequently, the average time estimated to respond to an FFA
regulation increased by approximately 872 hours per regulation per
respondent. Separately, FinCEN has updated the wage rate utilized
to estimate costs from $95 in the 2022 OMB control renewal to $120,
which primarily reflects increases in average wages as reported by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but also reflects a methodological
shift to apply FinCEN’s standard annual index wage rate to this
analysis.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
1506-0055 FFA supporting_statement 7_30_2025 FINAL.docx
Complying with recordkeeping requirements that apply to FFA reports