FinCEN Flags More Than $8 Billion in Potentially Suspicious Payments

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identified more than $8 billion in potentially suspicious payments sent through U.S.-based money services businesses at foreign agents' direction from 2021 to 2025 and issued an alert to financial institutions.

Issued Friday, Oct. 30, the alert asks financial institutions to detect, identify and report suspicious activity involving certain cross-border payments. For related suspicious activity reports (SARs), FinCEN requests the keyword FIN2026FOREIGNAGENT in field 2 and in the narrative.

The figure comes from Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reporting. Those filings provide investigative leads, not proof that a crime occurred. The $8 billion is not a confirmed measure of losses, seized money or recovered funds.

The total may include attempted and completed transfers, payments moving into or out of the country, and transfers between accounts. It can also include lawful and illicit activity, continuing activity, amendments, expanded networks and cumulative transactions reported by a single filer involving the same subject. The overlapping records can make the amount overinclusive, and the alert does not present it as a complete count of unique payments.

The alert describes a foreign agent directing a U.S.-based money services business (MSB) to send funds to an overseas third party, such as a purported supplier or partner. The agent and recipient may be different, making it harder to identify who ultimately receives the funds and the payment's purpose. MSBs use agents to provide international transfer services, including for underserved populations.

The notice cautions financial institutions against treating MSBs or any customer category as uniformly high-risk. It does not name specific businesses or give a count of unique payments or reports behind the $8 billion total. The alert also discusses entities with identified terrorist-financing connections but does not quantify any share of the total linked to them.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cited the figure at an administration announcement in St. Cloud, Minnesota. “FinCEN identified over $8 billion in potentially suspicious foreign agent-directed payments between 2021 and 2025 alone,” he said.