August 25, 2006

Mr. Robert W. Werner
Director
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

Dear Director Werner:

We are writing to you to express our concern relating to the impact on the Somali community in Minnesota of guidance issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) and the federal banking agencies in April 2005 regarding compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations by the banking industry and money services businesses (MSBs).

The Somali community has come to depend on MSBs to provide critical financial support in the form of remittances to loved ones, friends and former communities in their troubled homeland. The World Bank estimates that the total amount of these remittances is between $800 million and $1 billion a year. This amounts to approximately $100 per capita for a country with a per capita income of only $600 per year. As a result of the April 2005 guidance, however, it has come to our attention that some MSBs have ceased or will soon cease their remittance services among other important financial service offerings, principally as a result of their banking partners’ decisions to terminate their relationship out of BSA compliance concerns.

In the post-9/11 world we fully appreciate and understand the difficult balance that needs to be struck among national security, law enforcement, commercial and social interests. We fully support efforts by the Treasury Department and FINCEN to target terrorist financing, money laundering and other criminal activities. We also appreciate FINCEN’s acknowledged sensitivity to the difficulty in achieving this balance. That said, we are troubled that the current state of affairs does not represent the proper balance.

Accordingly, with the aforementioned in mind we respectfully request that FINCEN:

    · inform us of outreach efforts undertaken to date in Minnesota, especially with respect to the Somali community;

   · conduct greater outreach efforts with the Minnesota banking and Somali communities including offering guidance in the Somali language (including on FINCEN’s website for MSBs); and

   · expeditiously review comments solicited in its recent advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on the BSA and consider appropriate regulatory and guidance changes.

Although it is important that there be full compliance with the letter and spirit of the BSA, it is also just as important that BSA compliance efforts do not jeopardize the critical financial support from the Somali community to its homeland.

We appreciate your prompt consideration of our concern and recommendations and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
_______________________ _______________________

Mark Kennedy  - Norm Coleman

Member of Congress  - United States Senator

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