12 USC 1829 - Retention of records by insured depository institutions

View all text of Chapter 16 [§ 1811 - § 1835a]

§ 1829b. Retention of records by insured depository institutions

(a) Congressional findings and declaration of purpose

(1) Findings

Congress finds that—

(A) adequate records maintained by insured depository institutions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, and regulatory investigations or proceedings, and that, given the threat posed to the security of the Nation on and after the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, such records may also have a high degree of usefulness in the conduct of intelligence or counterintelligence activities, including analysis, to protect against domestic and international terrorism; and

(B) microfilm or other reproductions and other records made by insured depository institutions of checks, as well as records kept by such institutions, of the identity of persons maintaining or authorized to act with respect to accounts therein, have been of particular value in proceedings described in subparagraph (A).

(2) Purpose

(b) Recordkeeping regulations

(1) In general

(2) Domestic funds transfers

(3) International funds transfers

(A) In general

The Secretary and the Board shall jointly prescribe, after consultation with State banking supervisors, final regulations requiring that insured depository institutions, businesses that provide check cashing services, money transmitting businesses, and businesses that issue or redeem money orders, travelers’ checks or other similar instruments maintain such records of payment orders which—

(i) involve international transactions; and

(ii) direct transfers of funds over wholesale funds transfer systems or on the books of any insured depository institution, or on the books of any business that provides check cashing services, any money transmitting business, and any business that issues or redeems money orders, travelers’ checks or similar instruments,

that will have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings.

(B) Factors for consideration

In prescribing the regulations required under subparagraph (A), the Secretary and the Board shall consider—

(i) the usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings of any record required to be maintained pursuant to the proposed regulations; and

(ii) the effect the recordkeeping required pursuant to such proposed regulations will have on the cost and efficiency of the payment system.

(d) Reproduction of checks, drafts, and other instruments; record of transactions; identity of party

Each insured depository institution shall make, to the extent that the regulations of the Secretary so require—

(1) a microfilm or other reproduction of each check, draft, or similar instrument drawn on it and presented to it for payment; and

(2) a record of each check, draft, or similar instrument received by it for deposit or collection, together with an identification of the party for whose account it is to be deposited or collected, unless the insured depository institution has already made a record of the party’s identity pursuant to subsection (c).

(e) Identity of persons making reportable currency and foreign transactions

(f) Additions to or substitutes for required records

(g) Retention period

(h) Report to Congress by Secretary of the Treasury

(i) Application of provisions to foreign banks

(j) Civil penalties

(1) Penalty imposed

(2) Treatment of continuing violation

(3) Assessment

(Sept. 21, 1950, ch. 967, § 2[21], as added Pub. L. 91–508, title I, § 101, Oct. 26, 1970, 84 Stat. 1114; amended Pub. L. 95–369, § 6(c)(29), Sept. 17, 1978, 92 Stat. 620; Pub. L. 100–690, title VI, § 6185(d)(1), Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4356; Pub. L. 101–73, title II, § 201(a), Aug. 9, 1989, 103 Stat. 187; Pub. L. 102–550, title XV, §§ 1515(a), (b), 1535(b), Oct. 28, 1992, 106 Stat. 4058, 4059, 4066; Pub. L. 103–325, title VI, § 602(a)(52)–(54), Sept. 23, 1994, 108 Stat. 2290; Pub. L. 107–56, title III, § 358(d), Oct. 26, 2001, 115 Stat. 326; Pub. L. 108–458, title VI, § 6203(k), Dec. 17, 2004, 118 Stat. 3747.)