Overview[]
The current rules amended in 1999 by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network revised the regulatory definitions of certain non-bank financial institutions for purposes of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and grouped the definitions into a separate category of financial institution called money services businesses (or MSBs). A business that meets one or more of the definitions of a type of MSB (as currently defined) is an MSB and must comply with BSA requirements applicable to it as an MSB, as a financial institution and as a specific type of MSB.
The capacities in which a business might be acting that could bring it within the definition of an MSB are:
Product or Service (Capacity/Type of MSB)
- Money Orders (Issuer of money orders)
- Seller of money orders
- Redeemer of money orders
- Traveler's Checks (Issuer of traveler's checks)
- Seller of traveler's checks
- Redeemer of traveler's checks
- Money Transmission (Money transmitter)
- Check Cashing (Check casher)
- Currency Exchange (Dealer in foreign exchange)
- Currency Dealing (Dealer in foreign exchange)
- Prepaid Access (Provider of Prepaid Access) (Seller of Prepaid Access)