77320 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 247 / Monday, December 27, 2004 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 

Proposed Collection; Comment 

Request; Money Services Business 

Survey

AGENCY: Financial Crimes Enforcement 

Network (‘‘FinCEN’’), Treasury.

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: The Department of the 

Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement 

Network (‘‘FinCEN’’), requires current 

information regarding the size, extent, 

income derived by and nature of the 

Money Services Business (‘‘MSB’’) 

industry to more effectively regulate and 

inform MSBs about Bank Secrecy Act 

regulations that include requiring MSBs 

to register with FinCEN and to file 

Suspicious Activity Reports. FinCEN 

places a high priority on effective and 

broad-reaching initiatives to facilitate 

the education of MSBs and their agents 

in their responsibilities under the Bank 

Secrecy Act. FinCEN proposes to 

conduct a survey that is intended to 

provide data that can be used to update 

the 1997 Coopers & Lybrand study of 

the MSB industry to determine the 

current profile or make up of this 

industry and to include issuers, sellers 

and redeemers of stored value (which 

were not included in the 1997 Coopers 

& Lybrand study). The survey will 

consist of questions that will enable the 

contractor to provide a statistical 

estimate of the size and other business 

characteristics for the following 5 MSB 

industry sectors: (1) Check cashers, (2) 

currency dealers or exchangers (limited 

to those that exchange or deal in actual 

legal tender such as bank notes and 

coins), (3) issuers of money orders, 

traveler’s checks or stored value, (4) 

sellers or redeemers of money orders, 

traveler’s checks or stored value, and (5) 

money transmitters. Other goals of this 

study are: To identify the extent to 

which such financial services, which 

are not their primary business, are 

currently being offered through 

businesses, and to identify the 

percentage of income generated by these 

financial services activities; to 

determine how many of each of these 

MSBs are currently within the United 

States as well as their geographical 

distribution; to analyze, by state or other 

geographic grouping, and by type of 

business, differences in the number of 

MSBs currently registered as compared 

to the number, size and geographic 

distribution of the MSB industry 

segments identified in the study; to 

determine the extent to which MSBs are 

predominantly or primarily engaged in 

providing financial services as opposed 

to those in which these services are 

ancillary to their chief purposes as 

convenience or other retail stores. This 

request for comments is being made 

pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction 

Act of 1995, Public Law 104–13, 44 

U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).

DATES: Written comments are welcome 

and must be received on or before 

February 25, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be submitted to: Office of Chief Counsel, 

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, 

Department of the Treasury, P.O. Box 

39, Vienna, Virginia 22183, Attention:

PRA Comments—MSB Survey. 

Comments also may be submitted by 

electronic mail to the following Internet 

address: regcomments@fincen.treas.gov,

with a caption in the body of the text, 

‘‘Attention: PRA Comments—MSB 

Survey.’’

Inspection of comments. Comments 

may be inspected, between 10 a.m. and 

4 p.m., in the FinCEN reading room in 

Washington, DC. Persons wishing to 

inspect the comments submitted must 

request an appointment by telephoning 

(202) 354–6400.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or 

requests for copies of the questions for 

the new MSB industry survey that is the 

subject of this notice should be directed 

to: Anna Fotias, Senior Regulatory 

Compliance Specialist, Office of 

Regulatory Policy, FinCEN, at (202) 

354–6400; Christine Del Toro, AttorneyAdvisor, FinCEN, at (703) 905–3590.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: Money Services Business 

Program Response. 

OMB Number: 1506–xxxx. 

Abstract: Survey to be conducted with 

business owners and managers in the 

Money Services Business industry. 

Survey asks respondents to report on 

financial services provided by their 

businesses. 

Type of Review: New information 

collection. 

Affected Public: Business or other forprofit institutions. 

Frequency: One time. 

Estimated Burden: Reporting average 

of 15 minutes per response. 

Estimated Number of Respondents:

24,000. 

Estimated Total Responses: 24,000. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 6,000. 

Request for Comments: Comments 

submitted in response to this notice will 

be summarized and/or included in the 

request for OMB approval. All 

comments will become a matter of 

public record. Comments are invited on: 

(a) Whether the collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of the 

agency, including whether the 

information shall have practical utility; 

(b) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate 

of the burden of the collection of 

information; (c) ways to enhance the 

quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information to be collected: (d) ways to 

minimize the burden of the collection of 

information on respondents, including 

through the use of automated collection 

techniques or other forms of information 

technology; and (e) estimates of capital 

or start-up costs and costs of operation, 

maintenance and purchase of services to 

provide information.

Dated: December 15, 2004. 

William J. Fox, 

Director, Financial Crimes Enforcement 

Network.

[FR Doc. 04–28147 Filed 12–23–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4810–02–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Submission for OMB Review; 

Comment Request 

December 14, 2004. 

The Department of Treasury has 

submitted the following public 

information collection requirement(s) to 

OMB for review and clearance under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 

Public Law 104–13. Copies of the 

submission(s) may be obtained by 

calling the Treasury Bureau Clearance 

Officer listed. Comments regarding this 

information collection should be 

addressed to the OMB reviewer listed 

and to the Treasury Department 

Clearance Officer, Department of the 

Treasury, Room 11000, 1750 

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 

Washington, DC 20220.

DATES: Written comments should be 

received on or before January 26, 2005 

to be assured of consideration. 

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 

OMB Number: 1545–1901. 

Revenue Procedure Number: Revenue 

Procedure 2004–59. 

Type of Review: Extension. 

Title: Offer to Resolve Issues Arising 

from Certain Tax, Withholding, and 

Reporting Obligations of the U.S. 

Withholding Agents with Respect to 

Payment to Foreign Persons. 

Description: This revenue procedure 

describes the section 1441 Voluntary 

Compliance Program (‘‘VCP’’), which is 

available to certain withholding agents 

with respect to the payment, 

withholding, and reporting certain tax