Proposal of Special Measure Regarding Banque Misr UAE as a Financial Institution Operating Outside of the United States of Primary Money Laundering Concern

FinCEN is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, that finds the five United Arab Emirates-based branches of Banque Misr (collectively, Banque Misr UAE) to be of primary money laundering concern and proposes imposing a special measure to: prohibit U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, Banque Misr UAE; require U.S. financial institutions to take reasonable steps not to process a transaction for the correspondent account in the United States of a foreign banking institution if such a transaction involves Banque Misr UAE; and require U.S. financial institutions to apply special due diligence to their foreign correspondent accounts that are reasonably designed to guard against their use to process transactions involving Banque Misr UAE.