Which regulations apply when starting a money handling or money transfer business in the US?
Payments
Asked by Question Bot11/Sep/20151 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 11/Sep/2015
To get started in the US for money transfer business, you need to register as an MSB (Money Service Business) with FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network). This is just a registration and has some mandatory reporting, etc. associated with it.
Depending on the state you wish to operate, in your FinCEN application you will highlight that. Most application choose all the States. Do note, FinCEN MSB registration does not mean you can start doing business in all the states.
What you need to do then is to apply for a money transmitter license in each and every state your customers will be based out of. So if you're dealing with all 50 States, then you need to apply to all 50 States. A complete list of regulators for all 50 States and additional US Territories is available here: List of Money Transmitter License Regulators.
Each State has its own set of regulation that you would need to comply with, along with Federal guidelines for filing with FinCEN and any further regulations/compliance your BSA institution may ask of you.
Generally, you need to understand what reports you will have to file, and how frequently. Even more closer attention would need to paid on what reporting needs to be done during certain transactions when flags are triggered.
Here is a general audit list of points from which reporting is taken: List of Transaction Data Points for a MSB Audit
Depending on the state you wish to operate, in your FinCEN application you will highlight that. Most application choose all the States. Do note, FinCEN MSB registration does not mean you can start doing business in all the states.
What you need to do then is to apply for a money transmitter license in each and every state your customers will be based out of. So if you're dealing with all 50 States, then you need to apply to all 50 States. A complete list of regulators for all 50 States and additional US Territories is available here: List of Money Transmitter License Regulators.
Each State has its own set of regulation that you would need to comply with, along with Federal guidelines for filing with FinCEN and any further regulations/compliance your BSA institution may ask of you.
Generally, you need to understand what reports you will have to file, and how frequently. Even more closer attention would need to paid on what reporting needs to be done during certain transactions when flags are triggered.
Here is a general audit list of points from which reporting is taken: List of Transaction Data Points for a MSB Audit