Proposal of Special Measure Regarding Banque Misr UAE as a Financial Institution Operating Outside of the United States of Primary Money Laundering Concern
Key claim: The Treasury Department’s financial-crimes unit wants to bar U.S. banks from opening or keeping correspondent accounts for Banque Misr’s UAE branches and from processing transactions involving them, on the grounds that those branches are a primary money-laundering concern.
Abstract
(Proposed Rule · Treasury Department, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) FinCEN is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, that finds the five United Arab Emirates-based branches of Banque Misr (collectively, Banque Misr UAE) to be of primary money laundering concern and proposes imposing a special measure to: prohibit U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, Banque Misr UAE; 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 Banque Misr UAE; and require U.S. financial institutions to apply special due diligence to their foreign correspondent accounts that are reasonably designed to guard against their use to process transactions involving Banque Misr UAE.
Why this matters
Section 311 special measures are among FinCEN’s sharpest AML tools: a final rule would effectively sever the targeted branches from the U.S. dollar clearing system by blocking correspondent access. For U.S. banks, this creates immediate diligence obligations to identify and terminate direct and nested exposure to Banque Misr’s UAE operations, while signaling continued willingness to use institution-specific designations against Gulf-based branches of major foreign banks.