I recently had to submit my first FinCEN Directed CTR Backfiling. On the instructions for Backfiling and Amending Currency Transaction Reports issued October 27, 2014, the guidance states:

"After the financial institution has filed the FinCEN CTRs, it must send a letter confirming that the reports have been backfiled and/or amended. The letter should be addressed to FinCEN with copies sent to those federal and state agencies that examine the financial institution's Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Program"

Unfortunately for me, I became the BSA Officer after the most recent FDIC examination of by institution. As a result, I do not have contact information for our examiner directly, so I reached out to our regional FDIC office in order to obtain an email or physical address to send a copy of this explanation.

The individual I spoke with at the FDIC stated that they did not have anywhere for me to send a copy of this letter, that I did not have to send it to their office, and further provided me with a Currency Transaction Report Backfiling or Amendment Checklist dated May 2012.

Am I way off, or is something wrong here? I'm assuming I can just document the email correspondence with the FDIC individual I spoke with in order to cover myself in a future examination, however the fact that the Division of Banks from the state examination level was able to provide me with a contact office to send the letter tells me that I should truly be sending it to the FDIC as well.

I'd send the letter to the regional office of the FDIC notwithstanding your conversation, just as a CYA move.

Thanks John, I was thinking something along those lines; they'd probably view the documentation of the emails and correspondence as a reason to criticize anything & everything during the next examination, and possibly put me on their "bad side" for providing evidence of an oversight on their part.

To the Regional Office, alternatively to the to the EIC of your last exam. It's likely to be a source of puzzlement to any recipient. To my knowledge, the October 27, 2014 instructions are not public; they were sent to you after you called FinCEN, correct? As there is no published direction regarding backfiling, even in the Exam Manual, I assume the regulators learn about changes to process on a piecemeal basis just as the rest of us do.

Your regulator would have found out about the backfiling determination as a prelude to your next on site examination in the natural course of events; i.e. you would have disclosed it in response to their standard request for FinCEN correspondence. (See Appendix H to the Exam Manual.) As John suggests, this "notice" is perfunctory, rendered only to say you complied with FinCEN's instructions.

I had the same thing happen. Called my regional office, called the 1-800 number, left a message for a case worker I have contact info for... Apparently no one there is familiar with this requirement. Finally, I just faxed it to the main fax number for the regional office. It doesn't seem like they actually want a copy of the letter, and I really only want proof that I at least tried.