At a glance
- FinCEN and the Federal Reserve Board are withdrawing their October 2020 joint proposal to lower the threshold for collecting and keeping records on cross-border funds transfers from $3,000 to $250, and FinCEN’s matching cut to the Travel Rule, according to a notice filed for public inspection on Friday 6 Nov.
- The withdrawal also drops the proposed clarification that “money” in those rules covers convertible virtual currency and legal-tender digital assets. It is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on 9 Nov.
The notice (RIN 1506-AB41) is signed by FinCEN deputy director Jimmy L. Kirby and, for the Fed, Board secretary Benjamin McDonough. The agencies say they “will not take further action” on the proposal.
What the rules say today
Two Bank Secrecy Act rules sit underneath this. The Recordkeeping Rule makes banks and non-bank financial institutions collect and keep information on funds transfers of $3,000 or more; the Travel Rule makes them pass that information along to the next institution in the payment chain.
The 2020 plan would have applied the $250 line to transfers that “begin or end outside the United States”. Withdrawing it changes nothing in the current text: the $3,000 threshold remains.
That includes crypto. FinCEN’s 2019 guidance on convertible virtual currency business models (FIN-2019-G001) already says a transmittal of $3,000 or more, “or its equivalent in CVC”, can trigger Travel Rule duties for money transmitters.
Why the agencies say they pulled it
The notice says the agencies received nearly 3,000 comments, a significant majority of them form letters. Commenters mostly opposed the lower threshold, citing compliance costs for smaller institutions, disruption to remittances and more personal data held by firms. Views on the crypto clarification split: crypto firms and their trade groups opposed it, while some banks and money services businesses supported it.
The agencies give two reasons. More than five years have passed, and they want fresh public input before adopting anything similar. They also cite “significant recent developments” in the crypto industry, pointing in a footnote to the GENIUS Act stablecoin law enacted on 18 July 2025.
The procedure matters here. A withdrawn proposal cannot be finalised; any new attempt has to start again with a fresh proposal and comment period. The agencies say they are withdrawing it partly to give the public “certainty” on that point.
What industry and banks said
Coin Center said in a blog post that it welcomed the move, describing it as closing the books on several long-pending surveillance proposals, The Block reported. Crypto Council for Innovation chief executive Ji Hun Kim called it “the right call”, according to the same report.
The American Bankers Association had raised concerns in 2020 that the agencies had not analysed the proposal’s effect on banks, the ABA Banking Journal noted.
The withdrawal follows FinCEN’s earlier withdrawal of its crypto-mixing proposal. It is a rulemaking clean-up, not a softer enforcement line: on the same Friday, Treasury used a different statute in FinCEN’s order cutting MEXC Global off from U.S. banks.
Europe went the other way. The EU’s transfer-of-funds regulation (Regulation 2023/1113) has required originator and beneficiary information on crypto-asset transfers between providers, with no minimum amount, since 30 Dec 2024.
What happens next
The notice takes effect when it is published in the Federal Register on Monday 9 Nov. After that, the 2020 proposal is formally dead.
Any future change to the thresholds, or a rule written specifically for crypto transfers, would need a new proposal and a new comment period. This is not legal advice.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.