Financial Crimes Enforcement 

Network

FY 2017 

Capital Investment Plan
Bureau: FinCEN

Investment Name: BSA IT Modernization

Type of Investment: Major IT Investment

Description:

FinCENs BSA IT Modernization investment maintains a modernized information technology 

foundation to collect, process, analyze, and share Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data.

Investment Anticipated Outlay: (In Millions of $): 

Type PY-1 and Prior PY 

2015

CY 

2016

BY 

2017

BY+1 

2018

BY+2 

2019

BY+3 

2020 BY+4 and Beyond Total

DME Sub Total (Including Gov FTE) Costs 80.74 1.01 1.19 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 87.94

Total DME funding 1.01 1.19 1.00 3.20

Unallocated DME funding 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

O&M Sub Total (Including Gov FTE) Costs 50.63 32.33 26.68 27.02 27.02 27.02 27.02 27.02 244.75

Total O&M funding 32.33 26.68 27.02 86.03

Unallocated O&M funding 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Total Cost (Including Gov FTE) 131.37 33.34 27.87 28.02 28.02 28.02 28.02 28.02 332.70

Total Gov FTE Cost 8.53 3.66 4.33 4.48 4.48 4.48 4.48 4.48 38.93

Number of FTE represented by costs 39.00 16.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 169.00

Summary of Purpose, Goals, and Benefits: 

FinCEN's BSA IT Modernization investment began in FY 2010 and is the primary IT investment 

that directly supports FinCEN's mission 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. FinCEN's 

mission supports Treasury's strategic goal to protect our national security through targeted 

financial actions. To successfully fulfill its mission, FinCEN relies on secure, advanced IT to 

manage the collection, processing, analysis, storage, and dissemination of BSA information that 

contributes to the soundness of, and confidence in, America's financial system. FinCEN is the 

administrator of the Bank Secrecy Act, which allows stakeholders to combine this financial 

intelligence information with other information sources to address issues related to securing 

economic and financial stability, and combating terrorist financing. Prior to the four-year 

development effort that was completed in FY 2014, FinCEN faced the challenge of how to 

enable easier compliance and to streamline BSA information capture for FinCEN's financial 

community stakeholders while maximizing the value and impact of BSA information for its 

regulators, law enforcement, and intelligence community stakeholders. This investment 

addressed these challenges by providing an enterprise-wide information management and 

analysis framework that equips law enforcement and financial industry regulators with better 

decision-making abilities and increased value of BSA information through enhanced data 

integrity and analytical tools. This allows law enforcement and regulators to focus their limited 

resources on the areas of shifting illicit criminal activities and vulnerabilities affecting the 

soundness and stability of the U.S. financial system. In addition, the BSA IT Modernization 

investment enables easier compliance and streamlines BSA information capture for FinCEN's 

financial community through its enhancement of electronic filing systems for filers, 

standardization of financial data with existing financial community standards, and more timely 

and useful feedback on BSA information filings and the use of BSA information.
Return on Investment: 

The BSA IT Modernization Investment supports FinCEN's modernized technical environment, 

which leverages state-of-the-art technology and is maintained at a government co-located site, 

supporting Treasury's data center consolidation efforts. Since FinCEN chose to build a new 

systems environment using government-owned assets as its alternative, the return on 

investment (ROI) reflects more qualitative benefits, although some quantitative, estimated 

benefits do apply. As a result, FinCEN successfully assumed all system ownership responsibility 

from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), thus significantly reducing the IRS's operations and 

maintenance costs. In addition, the program has allowed FinCEN to mandate electronic filing for 

all Title 31 reports, and FinCEN now averages a receipt of 97% of electronic BSA filings. This 

effort has reduced paper processing and offered Treasury an annual savings of $8-12 million. 

FinCEN has greater flexibility and the ability to more quickly respond to its stakeholders' 

demands. The modernized infrastructure maintains more effective data security and audit 

technologies, including two-factor authentication, to maximize BSA data confidentiality and 

integrity. This initiative has improved time to respond to changes by reducing the number of 

work days required to develop and implement moderate impact changes to its BSA reports. 

FinCEN continues to improve with release planning efforts to address mandated changes to 

data collection tools, as well as defects and enhancements. In the area of data analysis, 

FinCEN has introduced more sophisticated web-based, analytical tools to its users. This 

improves the value of BSA information to law enforcement agencies and regulators by 

delivering data to its customers in a more timely fashion. FinCEN continues to provide data to its 

users in less than 48 hour from receipt. The bureau's capacity to proactively identify trends and 

patterns in the data has been improved, the number of reusable data sets continues to rise 

(saving time and resources), and sharing of analytical products assists law enforcement in 

enhancing their anti-money laundering strategies.

Requirements/ Benefits/ Mandates: 

Legislative Mandate: Statute 31 U.S.C. § 310 establishes FinCEN as a bureau within the 

Treasury Department and describes FinCEN's duties and powers to include maintaining a 

government-wide data access service with a range of financial transactions information.

Audit Finding or Material Weakness: N/A

Agency Strategic Plan / Annual Performance Plan: The fiscal years 2014-2018 Strategic 

Plan for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) illustrates the broad role the 

bureau plays in safeguarding the financial system from illicit use, combating money laundering, 

and promoting national security. As both the financial intelligence unit (FIU) for the United 

States and the federal government's primary anti-money laundering/countering the financing of 

terrorism (AML/CFT) regulator, FinCEN draws on a broad range of capabilities in technology, 

intelligence analysis, liaison, enforcement, and policy development to perform its work. 

Additionally, strong public-private sector partnerships are crucial for the bureau to achieve 

success. They serve as the foundation for protecting the financial system and national security.

Presidential Priority: N/A

Other Requirement: N/A

Accomplishments and Future Objectives: 

In FY 2016 and FY 2017, FinCEN plans to continue supporting the operations and maintenance 

of the BSA IT Modernization investment with ongoing maintenance releases to address any 

defects and minor requests for change and enhancements. In addition, FinCEN will complete 

several small, development efforts to continue to enhance the analytical capabilities.
Performance Evaluation and Metrics: 

Metric Description

Performance 

Measurement 

Category Mapping

Measurement 

Condition

Reporting 

Frequency

Unit Of 

Measure

CY 

Target

Latest 

Actual 

Result

Date of Latest 

Actual Result

Percent of customers who report overall satisfaction 

with external-facing, mission-critical search tool 

(FinCEN Query)

Customer Satisfaction 

(Results) Over target Annual Percentage 70.00 74.00 06/10/2015

Number of queries generated in FinCEN Query 

System per month

Strategic and Business 

Results Under target Monthly Number 560,000 531,633 02/01/2016

Cost per BSA filing transaction (electronically filed) Financial Performance Under target Annual Dollars 0.11 0.09 09/30/2015

BSA IT Mod mission critical system availability Strategic and Business 

Results Over target Quarterly Percentage 99.00 99.34 01/01/2016

Average number of hours from receipt of Suspicious 

Activity Reports (SARs) to availability for Query 

users

Strategic and Business 

Results Under target Monthly hours 48.00 36.48 02/01/2016

Percentage of customers submitting supporting 

documentation for Suspicious Activity Reports via 

the Secure Information Sharing System (SISS)

Strategic and Business 

Results Over target Quarterly percentage 30.00 81.00 01/01/2016