To require the Secretary of the Treasury to provide for greater transparency and protections with regard to Bank Secrecy Act reports, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
ReportedReported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the …
Mr. Davidson (for himself and Mr. Himes) introduced the following …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Financial Privacy Act of 2025 requires the Treasury Department to report annually to Congress about how much financial data the government collects on Americans through the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), and who has access to it. The bill notes that since 2001, FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) has collected over 322 million Currency Transaction Reports, 36 million Suspicious Activity Reports, and will soon hold ownership information from over 32 million companies. The bill requires Treasury to review and update protocols for how law enforcement and intelligence agencies access this data, with a focus on protecting privacy and civil liberties.
Who Benefits and How
Congressional oversight committees (House Financial Services and Senate Banking) gain enhanced authority to monitor how the government uses financial surveillance data. They receive annual reports showing exactly how many BSA reports are filed, retained, and accessed by agencies, plus they can request copies of access protocols and must be notified within 30 days of any changes. Privacy advocates and civil liberties groups benefit from explicit statutory language requiring that data collection protocols protect civil liberties and privacy rights, though this provides moral support rather than direct economic benefits. Financial institutions and the 32+ million businesses that file reports with FinCEN may indirectly benefit if the annual protocol reviews lead to more tailored data collection requirements, though this bill doesn't directly change their reporting obligations.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Treasury Department faces new administrative work preparing detailed annual reports to Congress documenting all BSA data collection, agency queries, access denials, and protocol changes. FinCEN must track and report comprehensive statistics on reports filed, retained, and accessed. The Director of National Intelligence and Attorney General must participate in annual consultations with Treasury to review and revise data access protocols. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies accessing FinCEN data become subject to revised protocols aimed at better protecting civil liberties, and their data queries and any access denials are tracked and reported to Congress.
Key Provisions
- Requires annual reports to Congress showing the number of Currency Transaction Reports, Suspicious Activity Reports, and other BSA filings collected by FinCEN, broken down by type
- Mandates that Treasury report how many times law enforcement and intelligence agencies queried FinCEN databases and whether any access requests were denied
- Establishes annual protocol review process where Treasury, the Director of National Intelligence, and Attorney General must review and update rules for agency access to financial data
- Requires Congressional committees to be notified within 30 days of any changes to data access protocols
- Includes a 7-year sunset provision - the new reporting requirements automatically expire after 7 years unless Congress reauthorizes them
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to provide greater transparency about FinCEN data collection and establish review protocols for agency access to financial reports filed under the Bank Secrecy Act
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Increase Congressional oversight and transparency over FinCEN data collection while protecting civil liberties and privacy rights; includes a sunset provision that repeals the new reporting requirements after 7 years"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Privacy advocates and civil liberties groups
- Congressional oversight committees (Financial Services, Banking)
- Businesses and individuals subject to BSA reporting (indirect - through better tailored collection)
- Financial institutions (potential reduction in compliance burden if protocols are refined)
Likely Burden Bearers
- Department of the Treasury (Treasury Secretary's office)
- FinCEN (additional reporting and protocol review requirements)
- Law enforcement and intelligence agencies (subject to new oversight protocols)
- Director of National Intelligence and Attorney General (consultation requirements)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "fincen"
- → Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
- "the_director"
- → Director of National Intelligence
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
- "the_attorney_general"
- → Attorney General
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Information about individuals who ultimately own or control a company, collected by FinCEN from 32+ million companies
Federal law requiring financial institutions to report certain transactions to FinCEN
Reports filed for cash transactions over $10,000; over 322 million collected since 2001
Reports filed when financial institutions detect potentially suspicious activity; over 36 million collected since 2001
Bureau of the Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes financial transaction data
Reports of cash payments over $10,000 in trade or business; nearly 5 million collected
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology