Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Program Summary by Budget Activity

Dollars in Thousands

 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2016 to FY 2017

Budget Activity Enacted Enacted Request $ Change % Change

BSA Administration and Analysis $112,000 $112,979 $115,003 $2,024 1.79%

Subtotal, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network $112,000 $112,979 $115,003 $2,024 1.79%

Offsetting Collections - Reimbursables $3,000 $1,500 $1,500 $0 0.00%

Recovery from Prior Years $500 $500 $500 $0 0.00%

Unobligated Balances from Prior Years $50,000 $42,000 $38,000 ($4,000) -9.52%

Total Program Operating Level $165,500 $156,979 $155,003 ($1,976) -1.26%

Direct FTE 345 343 343 0 0.00%

Reimbursable FTE 1 1 1 0 0.00%

Total FTE 346 344 344 0 0.00%

Summary

The mission of the Financial Crimes 

Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is to 

safeguard the financial system from illicit use, 

and combat money laundering and promote 

national security through the collection, 

analysis, and dissemination of financial 

intelligence and strategic use of financial 

authorities.

In carrying out its mission, FinCEN has 

numerous statutory areas of responsibility: 

developing and issuing regulations under the 

Bank Secrecy Act (BSA); enforcing 

compliance with the BSA in partnership with 

law enforcement and other regulatory partners; 

serving as the U.S. Financial Intelligence Unit 

(FIU) and maintaining a network of 

information sharing with FIUs in more than 

147 partner countries; receiving millions of 

new financial reports each year and 

maintaining a database of over 190 million 

reports; analyzing and disseminating financial 

intelligence to federal, state, and local law 

enforcement, federal and state regulators, 

foreign FIUs, and industry; and bringing 

together the disparate interests of law 

enforcement, FIUs, regulatory partners, and 

industry.

FinCEN’s priorities include:

• Target examination and enforcement 

efforts to high risk and priority areas,

with increased focus on money

services businesses;

• Expand understanding and analysis of

illicit networks, institutions, 

jurisdictions, and schemes, with 

emphasis on national security threats 

and terrorist groups such as ISIL;

• Ensure the BSA regulatory structure 

effectively and efficiently targets illicit

financing risks;

• Manage the efficient collection,

processing, and retrieval of BSA data; and

• Foster strong public-private partnerships 

with the financial industry.
FinCEN FY 2017 Budget Highlights

Dollars in Thousands

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 

FTE Amount

FY 2016 Enacted 343 $112,979

Changes to Base:

Maintaining Current Levels (MCLs): - $1,824

Pay-Raise - $528

Pay Annualization - $175

Non-Pay - $1,121

Efficiency Savings: - ($1,300)

Efficiency Savings - ($750)

Commercial Database Contract Savings - ($550)

Subtotal Changes to Base - $524

Total FY 2017 Base 343 $113,503

Program Changes:

Program Increases:

 National Security Response Capacity - $1,500

Total FY 2017 Request 343 $115,003

FY 2017 Budget Adjustments

Adjustments to Request

Maintaining Current Levels (MCLs) 

Pay-Raise +$528,000 / +0 FTE 

Funds are requested for the proposed January 

2017 pay-raise.

Pay Annualization +$175,000 / +0 FTE 

Funds are requested for annualization of the 

January 2016 pay-raise.

Non-Pay +$1,121,000 / +0 FTE 

Funds are requested for inflation adjustments 

in non-labor expenses such as GSA rent 

adjustments, postage, supplies, and equipment.

Efficiency Savings

Efficiency Savings -$750,000 / +0 FTE 

These efficiencies are a result of reductions in 

travel, printing, and savings realized through 

re-evaluated or negotiated contracts.

Commercial Database Contract Savings 

-$550,000 / +0 FTE 

These savings are the result of renewed 

contract pricing for open source commercial 

databases used in FinCEN’s intelligence 

analysis. These savings resulted from 

Treasury’s strategic sourcing initiative that 

renegotiated contract pricing on several 

commercial databases and from reassessment 

of usage categories. 

Program Increases

National Security Response Capacity 

+$1,500,000 / +0 FTE 

FinCEN will use these funds to sustain 

increased contractor support for FinCEN’s 

intelligence analysis and reporting for efforts 

against ISIL. In FY 2015, FinCEN 

temporarily increased the number of contractor 

personnel who process alerts on BSA filings 

and develop reports for dissemination to 

FinCEN customers in law enforcement, the 

intelligence community, and foreign FIUs. 

These customers indicate the enhanced level of 

support has aided investigations and increased 

their capacity to address an increasing number 

of threats from groups like ISIL. The demand 

for FinCEN’s financial intelligence has 

solidified the need for the bureau to continue 

to support critical national security activities 

whenever they arise. In many cases, FinCEN 

is the only link between the intelligence 

community and the financial intelligence 

maintained pursuant to the reporting 

obligations under the BSA. The information 

available from FinCEN’s new capability to 

provide red flag alerts on BSA filings has 

become extremely valuable to the intelligence 

and law enforcement community. In order to 

address emerging issues and provide the level 

of support that law enforcement and the 

intelligence community have come to rely on, 

FinCEN needs additional funding to continue 

the current contractor support.

Explanation of Budget Activities

BSA Administration and Analysis 

($115,003,000 from direct appropriations,

and $1,500,000 from reimbursable resources)

The programs funded by this budget activity 

support Treasury Strategic Goal 4: “Safeguard 

the financial system and use financial 

measures to counter national security threats.” 

This activity comprises FinCEN’s efforts to 

develop and issue regulations under the BSA; 

enforce compliance with the BSA in 

partnership with regulatory partners and as the 

sole BSA regulator across numerous 
industries; receive BSA reports and maintain a 

database; analyze and disseminate financial 

intelligence to federal, state, and local law 

enforcement, federal and state regulators, 

foreign FIUs, and industry; and serve as the 

U.S. FIU and maintain a network of 

information sharing with FIUs in partner 

countries. The goal owner for this budget 

activity is the Director of FinCEN.

Legislative Proposals

FinCEN has no legislative proposals. 

FinCEN Performance by Budget Activity

Budget Activity Performance Measure FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Actual Actual Actual Target Target

BSA Administration and Analysis Percentage of Users Finding That 

the Financial Intelligence Collected 

by FinCEN Pursuant to its 

Regulations Provides Valuable 

Information to Safeguard the 

Financial System, Combat Money 

Laundering, and Counter Terrorist 

Financing

80.0 81.0 83.0 84.0 85.0

BSA Administration and Analysis Percentage of Stakeholders Finding 

FinCEN’s Information Sharing Has 

Contributed to Their Organization’s 

Responsibilities

N/A 89.0 91.0 92.0 92.0

BSA Administration and Analysis Percentage of Users Satisfied with 

FinCEN Information Sharing 

Systems

N/A N/A 80.0 80.0 80.0

Key: DISC – Discontinued

Description of Performance

FinCEN tracks the percentage of users finding 

that financial intelligence collected by FinCEN 

pursuant to its regulations provides valuable 

information to safeguard the financial system, 

combat money laundering, and counter 

terrorist financing. The survey looks at the 

value of FinCEN data, such as whether the 

data provided unknown information, 

supplemented or expanded known 

information, verified information, helped 

identify new leads, opened a new investigation 

or examination, supported an existing 

investigation or examination, or provided 

information for an investigative or 

examination report. In FY 2015, FinCEN 

surpassed its target of 82 percent with 83 

percent finding value. FinCEN attained this 

result by placing greater emphasis on both inperson and online training that will better 

assist users in understanding and utilizing the 

new FinCEN Query tool for their unique cases 

and situations. 

FinCEN measures the percentage of 

stakeholders finding FinCEN’s information 

sharing has contributed to their organization’s 

responsibilities. The measure examines the 

survey responses of customers who have had 

contact with FinCEN to exchange information, 

including industry, regulators, and law 

enforcement, both domestic and foreign. This 

is a fairly new composite measure that consists 

of the following questions: call center 

guidance response was understandable; rate 

the usefulness of the 314(a) requests FinCEN 

processed on behalf of your agency for 

investigations of financial crimes or money 

laundering; how satisfied are you with the 

information sharing you have with FinCEN; 

and over the past 12 months how satisfied are 

you with FinCEN. This is a meaningful 

measure as it tracks FinCEN’s efforts to share 
financial intelligence. In FY 2015, FinCEN 

surpassed its target of 89 percent with 91 

percent finding the information sharing 

helpful. FinCEN was able to attain this 

performance by maximizing the sharing of 

financial intelligence between FinCEN and its 

domestic and foreign partners in government 

and private industry. 

FinCEN tracks the percentage of users 

satisfied with FinCEN information sharing 

systems. The measure is based on survey 

responses and represents user satisfaction with 

the BSA E-Filing System, FinCEN Query, and 

the Egmont Secure Web. Starting with

industry, FinCEN collects and maintains BSA 

reports filed by financial institutions and other 

filers. In turn, FinCEN provides authorized 

users (including Treasury and the Office of 

Terrorism and Financial Intelligence) access to 

a query system containing 11 years of BSA 

data. FinCEN also provides foreign FIUs in 

the Egmont Group with a secure system for 

exchanging financial intelligence to combat 

money laundering and terrorist financing. 

This measure is meaningful because the 

technology allows authorized persons to more 

readily access BSA information and better 

enables them to conduct investigations more 

efficiently and effectively. In FY 2015, 

FinCEN exceeded its target of 78 percent with 

80 percent of the users satisfied with 

information sharing systems. During 

FY 2015, FinCEN continued to address critical 

system issues and make minimal enhancement 

requests as part of its ongoing operations and 

maintenance.