Safe harbor with respect to keep open directives

31 U.S.C. § 5333
in effect
Sign in to generate a plain English summaryAsk Belisarius Agent
(a) In General.—With respect to a customer account or customer transaction of a financial institution, if a Federal law enforcement agency, after notifying FinCEN of the intent to submit a written request to the financial institution that the financial institution keep that account or transaction open (referred to in this section as a “keep open request”), or if a State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agency with the concurrence of FinCEN submits a keep open request—(1) the financial institution shall not be liable under this subchapter for maintaining that account or transaction consistent with the parameters and timing of the request; and (2) no Federal or State department or agency may take any adverse supervisory action under this subchapter with respect to the financial institution solely for maintaining that account or transaction consistent with the parameters of the request. (b) Rule of Construction.—Nothing in this section may be construed—(1) to prevent a Federal or State department or agency from verifying the validity of a keep open request submitted under subsection (a) with the law enforcement agency submitting that request; (2) to relieve a financial institution from complying with any reporting requirements or any other provisions of this subchapter, including the reporting of suspicious transactions under section 5318(g); or (3) to extend the safe harbor described in subsection (a) to any actions taken by the financial institution—(A) before the date of the keep open request to maintain a customer account; or (B) after the termination date stated in the keep open request. (c) Letter Termination Date.—For the purposes of this section, any keep open request submitted under subsection (a) shall include a termination date after which that request shall no longer apply. (d) Record Keeping.—Any Federal, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agency that submits to a financial institution a keep open request shall, not later than 2 business days after the date on which the request is submitted to the financial institution—(1) submit to FinCEN a copy of the request; and (2) alert FinCEN as to whether the financial institution has implemented the request. (e) Guidance.—The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and Federal, State, Tribal, and local law enforcement agencies, shall issue guidance on the required elements of a keep open request.

Starting a business? Corpus forms LLCs in all 50 states and DC.