Subtitle B of Title III of the Patriot Act

The USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the United States Congress in 2001 as a response to the September 11 attacks in 2001. It has ten titles, with the third title ("Title III: International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001") written to prevent, detect, and prosecute international money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Title III is itself divided into three subtitles. The second subtitle, entitled Subtitle B: Bank Secrecy Act Amendments and Related Improvements, largely modifies the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to make it harder for money launderers to operate, and to make it easier for law enforcement and regulatory agencies to police money laundering operations. The BSA was amended to allow the designated officer or agency who receives suspicious transaction reports to notify U.S. intelligence agencies. It also addresses issues of record keeping and reporting by making it easier to undertake the reporting of suspicious transactions; by making it a requirement that financial institutions report suspicious transactions; through the creation of anti-money laundering programs and by better defining anti-money laundering strategy; and by making it a requirement that anyone who does business file a report for any coin and foreign currency receipts that are over US$10,000. The subtitle increases civil and criminal penalties for money laundering and introduces penalties for violations of geographic targeting orders and certain recordkeeping requirements.

Subtitle B legislated for the creation of a secure network which can be used by financial institutions to report suspicious transactions and which can also give them alerts of relevant suspicious activities. Subtitle B also makes FinCEN a bureau of the United States Department of Treasury. The subtitle allows the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to authorize personnel to act as law enforcement officers to protect the premises, grounds, property and personnel of any U.S. Federal reserve bank, and allows them to delegate this authority to U.S. Federal Reserve Banks. It instructs any United States Executive Directors of international financial institutions to use their voice and vote to support any country that has taken action to support the U.S.'s War on Terrorism, and to require such Executive Directors to provide ongoing auditing of disbursements made from their institutions to ensure that no funds are paid to persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism.