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OMB Control No: 1506-0071	ICR Reference No: 202602-1506-002
Status: Received in OIRA	Previous ICR Reference No: 202301-1506-001
Agency/Subagency: TREAS/FINCEN	Agency Tracking No:
Title: Imposition of Special Measure Against North Korea as a Jurisdiction of Primary Money Laundering Concern
Type of Information Collection: Extension without change of a currently approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Regular	Date Submitted to OIRA: 03/31/2026

	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	36 Months From Approved	05/31/2026
Responses	127	16,588
Time Burden (Hours)	6	16,588
Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0

Abstract: Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Section 311), codified at 31 U.S.C. 5318A, grants FinCEN the authority, upon finding that reasonable grounds exist for concluding that a foreign jurisdiction, financial institution, class of transactions, or type of account is of “primary money laundering concern,” to require domestic financial institutions and financial agencies to take one or more “special measures.” Special measures one through four, codified at 31 U.S.C. 5318A(b)(1)–(b)(4), impose additional recordkeeping, information collection, and reporting requirements on covered U.S. financial institutions. The fifth special measure, codified at 31 U.S.C. 5318A(b)(5), allows FinCEN to impose prohibitions or conditions on the opening or maintenance of certain correspondent accounts. Special measures are safeguards that protect the U.S. financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing. In 2016, FinCEN issued a final rule imposing the fifth special measure to prohibit U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for, or on behalf of, North Korean banking institutions. The rule requires that U.S. financial institutions take reasonable steps to avoid processing transactions through the correspondent account of a foreign bank in the United States, if such transactions involve a North Korean financial institution, and it requires institutions to apply special due diligence to guard against the use of correspondent accounts by North Korean financial institutions. See 31 CFR 1010.659.

Authorizing Statute(s): US Code: 31 USC 5318(A) Name of Law: Money and Finance

Citations for New Statutory Requirements: None

Associated Rulemaking Information
RIN:	Stage of Rulemaking:	Federal Register Citation:	Date:
	Not associated with rulemaking

Federal Register Notices & Comments
60-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	90 FR 57279	12/10/2025
30-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	91 FR 16082	03/31/2026
Did the Agency receive public comments on this ICR? Yes

Number of Information Collection (IC) in this ICR: 1

IC Title	Form No.	Form Name
Imposition of Special Measure Against North Korea as a Jurisdiction of Primary Money Laundering Concern

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Request	Previously Approved	Change Due to Adjustment in Estimate
Annual Number of Responses	127	16,588	-16,461
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	6	16,588	-16,582
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

Burden increases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Increase Due to:

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Reduction Due to:

Short Statement: When these OMB control numbers were last renewed in 2023 and 2024, FinCEN estimated that because approximately 15,000 to 16,500 U.S. financial institutions could potentially maintain correspondent accounts for foreign banks, they were all equally likely to incur recordkeeping burdens. In 2025, FinCEN refined its burden assignment methods by distinguishing between all covered financial institutions that could potentially become respondents if they were to maintain a correspondent account for a foreign bank and those that might reasonably be expected to actually be respondents in a given year because they bear indicia of already maintaining such accounts. As a result, in 2025, FinCEN revised the estimated expected number of U.S. financial institutions that maintain a correspondent account for a foreign bank to 127. This is the primary reason for the change in the burden estimate. In addition, FinCEN revised its burden methodology to account for a staggered decrease in burden in the years following the first year after the publication and implementation of a Section 311 final rule imposing special measure five. Thus, the average time per respondent has been decreased from a uniform burden assignment of one hour in any given year in the prior renewals to 0.05 hours given the number of years elapsed since the first year in which the final rule implemented this imposition of special measure five.

Annual Cost to Federal Government: $0

Does this IC contain surveys, censuses, or employ statistical methods? No

Does this ICR request any personally identifiable information (see OMB Circular No. A-130 for an explanation of this term)? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. No

Does this ICR include a form that requires a Privacy Act Statement (see 5 U.S.C. §552a(e)(3))? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. No

Is this ICR related to the Affordable Care Act [Pub. L. 111-148 & 111-152]? No

Is this ICR related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, [Pub. L. 111-203]? No

Is this ICR related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)? No

Is this ICR related to the Pandemic Response? No

Agency Contact: FinCEN Resource Center 800 767-2825 frc@fincen.gov

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