FinCEN announced yesterday that, once again, it is extending the Geographic Targeting Order, or GTO, which requires U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons behind so-called “shell companies” used in purchases of residential real estate not involving a mortgage.  FinCEN also has expanded slightly the reach of the GTOs.

The new GTO is here.  FinCEN’s press release is here.  FAQs issued by FinCEN on the GTOs are here.  This is a topic on which we previously have blogged extensively.

The terms of the new GTO are effective beginning October 27, 2022, and ending on April 24, 2023.   The only change is that FinCEN has expanded the coverage of the GTO to counties encompassing the Texas cities of Houston and Laredo.  The effective period of the GTOs for purchases in these newly added areas begins on November 25, 2022.  The GTO will continue to cover certain counties within the following major U.S. metropolitan areas:  Boston; Chicago; Dallas-Fort Worth; Honolulu; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; New York City; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; parts of the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Maryland (DMV) metropolitan area, the Hawaiian islands of Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai, and Fairfield County, Connecticut.  The purchase amount threshold remains $300,000 for each covered metropolitan area, with the exception of the City and County of Baltimore, where the purchase threshold is $50,000.

The GTO continuation and expansion is not occurring in a regulatory vacuum.  FinCEN issued on December 6, 2021 an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“AMPRM”) to solicit public comment on potential requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act for certain persons involved in real estate transactions to collect, report, and retain information.  As we have blogged, the ANPRM envisions imposing nationwide recordkeeping and reporting requirements on specified participants in transactions involving non-financed real estate purchases, with no minimum dollar threshold. 

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