New FinCEN Unit Likely to Step Up Bank Data Requests, Chief Says

A months-old division within the Treasury Department’s financial intelligence group won’t delay using its broad data collection tools and targeted orders to pursue terrorist financing and other international threats, a top official said.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) Global Investigations Division was formed in August and instructed to focus exclusively on the so-called special collections tools and enforcement abilities provided by Section 311 of the Patriot Act.

“We’re still pretty small, but I expect that we’ll be building out rather fast in the next couple of years,” Michael Stiglitz, the division’s chief, said Dec. 10 during a financial crimes ...