Imposition of Fifth Special
Measure against the Islamic Republic of Iran as a Jurisdiction of
Primary Money Laundering Concern
Extension without change of a currently approved collection
No
Regular
03/31/2026
Requested
Previously Approved
36 Months From Approved
07/31/2026
127
15,960
6
15,960
0
0
In November 2019, FinCEN issued a
final rule imposing the fifth special measure to prohibit U.S.
financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent
account for, or on behalf of, Iranian financial institutions. The
rule requires that U.S. financial institutions take reasonable
steps to avoid processing transactions through the correspondent
account of a foreign bank in the United States if such transactions
involve an Iranian financial institution, and requires U.S.
financial institutions to apply special due diligence that is
reasonably designed to guard against the use of correspondent
accounts being used to process prohibited transactions involving
Iranian financial institutions. See 31 C.F.R. § 1010.661. U.S.
financial institutions are required under 31 C.F.R. §
1010.661(b)(3)(i)(A) to notify their foreign correspondent account
holders that they may not provide Iranian financial institutions
with access to correspondent accounts maintained at the U.S.
financial institution. The requirement is intended to ensure
cooperation from correspondent account holders in denying the
Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) access to the U.S. financial
system. U.S. financial institutions are required under 31 C.F.R. §
1010.661(b)(4)(i) to document compliance with the notification
requirement. The information is used by Federal agencies and
certain self-regulatory organizations to verify compliance with 31
C.F.R. § 1010.661.
US Code:
31
USC 5318A Name of Law: USA PATRIOT Act Pub. L. 107-56
When these OMB control numbers
were last renewed in 2023 and 2024, FinCEN estimated that because
approximately 15,000 to 16,500 U.S. financial institutions could
potentially maintain correspondent accounts for foreign banks, they
were all equally likely to incur recordkeeping burdens. In 2025,
FinCEN refined its burden assignment methods by distinguishing
between all covered financial institutions that could potentially
become respondents if they were to maintain a correspondent account
for a foreign bank and those that might reasonably be expected to
actually be respondents in a given year because they bear indicia
of already maintaining such accounts. As a result, in 2025, FinCEN
revised the estimated expected number of U.S. financial
institutions that maintain a correspondent account for a foreign
bank to 127. This is the primary reason for the change in the
burden estimate. In addition, FinCEN revised its burden methodology
to account for a staggered decrease in burden in the years
following the first year after the publication and implementation
of a Section 311 final rule imposing special measure five. Thus,
the average time per respondent has been decreased from a uniform
burden assignment of one hour in any given year in the prior
renewals to 0.05 hours given the number of years elapsed since the
first year in which the final rule implemented this imposition of
special measure five.
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.
03/31/2026
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