Proposal of Special Measure Regarding MBaer Merchant Bank AG as a Financial Institution Operating Outside of the United States of Primary Money Laundering Concern

What it does

FinCEN is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, that finds MBaer Merchant Bank AG (MBaer), a financial institution based in Switzerland, to be of primary money laundering concern, and proposes imposing a special measure to: (1) prohibit U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, MBaer; (2) require U.S. financial institutions to take reasonable steps not to process a transaction for the correspondent account in the United States of a foreign banking institution if such a transaction involves MBaer; and (3) require U.S. financial institutions to apply special due diligence to their foreign correspondent accounts that is reasonably designed to guard against their use to process transactions involving MBaer.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What it would change

1 part of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

31 CFR 1010

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 1506-AB71 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

Written comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking must be submitted on or before April 1, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket FINCEN-2026-0001 on Regulations.gov
• Title 31 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register