SUMMARY:
On October 26, 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act (USAPA) into law. This bill is 342 pages long and makes changes, some large and some small, to over 15 different statutes. One of the purposes of the Act is to strengthen the disclosure requirements for foreign banks that have correspondent relationships with banks in the United States. Specific sections of the Act require that any such foreign bank with a correspondent relationship must maintain a registered agent of purposes of legal process receipt. The pertinent sections follow:

3) FOREIGN BANK RECORDS-

(A) SUMMONS OR SUBPOENA OF RECORDS-

(i) IN GENERAL- The Secretary of the Treasury or the Attorney General may issue a summons or subpoena to any foreign bank that maintains a correspondent account in the United States and request records related to such correspondent account, including records maintained outside of the United States relating to the deposit of funds into the foreign bank.

(ii) SERVICE OF SUMMONS OR SUBPOENA- A summons or subpoena referred to in clause (i) may be served on the foreign bank in the United States if the foreign bank has a representative in the United States, or in a foreign country pursuant to any mutual legal assistance treaty, multilateral agreement, or other request for international law enforcement assistance.

(B) ACCEPTANCE OF SERVICE-

(i) MAINTAINING RECORDS IN THE UNITED STATES- Any covered financial institution which maintains a correspondent account in the United States for a foreign bank shall maintain records in the United States identifying the owners of such foreign bank and the name and address of a person who resides in the United States and is authorized to accept service of legal process for records regarding the correspondent account.

(ii) LAW ENFORCEMENT REQUEST- Upon receipt of a written request from a Federal law enforcement officer for information required to be maintained under this paragraph, the covered financial institution shall provide the information to the requesting officer not later than 7 days after receipt of the request.

(C) GRACE PERIOD- Financial institutions shall have 60 days from the date of enactment of this Act to comply with the provisions of section 5318(k) of title 31, United States Code, as added by this section.