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FinCEN Floats Regs That Would Bring Fannie, Freddie Under BSA

By Colby Adams

Government home mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will have to adopt anti-money laundering programs and file suspicious activity reports under rules proposed Thursday by the U.S. Treasury Department. Currently the companies, called government-sponsored entities (GSEs), file reports of suspected mortgage fraud with their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which then determines if a suspicious activity report (SAR) should be filed with the department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The proposal would "streamline the reporting process" and circumvent the FHFA reporting obligation by requiring the GSEs, which include federal home loan banks, to file SARs directly with...

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