SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Financial Crimes Enforcement Net-
work (FinCEN) is the Financial Intelligence Unit of 
the United States tasked with safeguarding the fi-
nancial system from illicit use, combating money 
laundering and its related crimes including ter-
rorism, and promoting national security. 
(2) Per statute, FinCEN may require domestic 
financial institutions and financial agencies to take 
certain ‘‘special measures’’ against jurisdictions, in-
stitutions, classes of transactions, or types of ac-
counts determined to be of primary money laun-
dering concern, providing the Secretary with a range 
of options, such as enhanced record-keeping, that 
can be adapted to target specific money laundering 
and terrorist financing and to bring pressure on 
those that pose money laundering threats. 
(3) This special-measures authority was grant-
ed in 2001, when most cross-border transactions oc-
curred through correspondent or payable-through ac-
counts held with large financial institutions which 
serve as intermediaries to facilitate financial trans-
actions on behalf of other banks. 
(4) Innovations in financial services have trans-
formed and expanded methods of cross-border trans-
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actions that could not have been envisioned 20 years 
ago when FinCEN was given its special-measures 
authority. 
(5) These innovations, particularly through dig-
ital assets and informal value transfer systems, while 
useful to legitimate consumers and law enforcement, 
can be tools abused by bad actors like sanctions 
evaders, fraudsters, money launderers, and those 
who commit ransomware attacks on victimized U.S. 
companies and which abuse the financial system to 
move and obscure the proceeds of their crimes. 
(6) Ransomware attacks on U.S. companies re-
quiring payments in cryptocurrencies have increased 
in recent years, with the U.S. Treasury estimating 
that ransomware payments in the United States 
reached $590 million in just the first half of 2021, 
compared to a total of $416 million in 2020. 
(7) In July 2021, the White House, with sup-
port of U.S. allies, asserted that the People’s Repub-
lic of China was responsible for ransomware oper-
ations against private companies that included de-
mands of millions of dollars, including the 2021 
ransomware attacks that breached Microsoft email 
systems and affected thousands of consumers, State 
and local municipalities, and government contractors 
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attributed to a cyber espionage group with links to 
the Chinese Ministry of State Security. 
(8) As ransomware attacks organized by Chi-
nese and other foreign bad actors continue to grow 
in size and scope, modernizing FinCEN’s special 
measure authorities will empower FinCEN to adapt 
its existing tools, monitor and obstruct global finan-
cial threats, and meet the challenges of combating 
21st century financial crime. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITIONS OR CONDITIONS ON CERTAIN 
TRANSMITTALS OF FUNDS. 
Section 5318A of title 31, United States Code, is 
amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)(2)(C), by striking ‘‘sub-
section (b)(5)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraphs (5) and 
(6) of subsection (b)’’; and 
(2) in subsection (b)— 
(A) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘for or 
on behalf of a foreign banking institution’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(6) PROHIBITIONS OR CONDITIONS ON CER-
TAIN TRANSMITTALS OF FUNDS.—If the Secretary 
finds a jurisdiction outside of the United States, 1 
or more financial institutions operating outside of 
the United States, 1 or more types of accounts with-
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in, or involving, a jurisdiction outside of the United 
States, or 1 or more classes of transactions within, 
or involving, a jurisdiction outside of the United 
States to be of primary money laundering concern, 
the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of 
State, the Attorney General, and the Chairman of 
the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Sys-
tem, may prohibit, or impose conditions upon certain 
transmittals of funds (as such term may be defined 
by the Secretary in a special measure issuance, by 
regulation, or as otherwise permitted by law), to or 
from any domestic financial institution or domestic 
financial agency if such transmittal of funds involves 
any such jurisdiction, institution, type of account, or 
class of transaction.’’. 
Æ 
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