The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Federal Reserve have withdrawn a 2020 proposal that would have expanded the information U.S. financial institutions must collect on cross-border transfers, including transfers involving crypto assets. The joint withdrawal was placed in the Federal Register, according to a report published by COINOTAG on November 9, 2026.

What the Travel Rule Requires

The Travel Rule is a Bank Secrecy Act recordkeeping requirement, codified at 31 CFR 1010.410(f), obligating financial institutions to collect and pass along certain customer information — including originator and beneficiary names, addresses, and account numbers — for funds transfers and transmittals of funds above a set threshold. That threshold currently stands at $3,000, and because it defines which transfers trigger the obligation, its level directly shapes the volume of customer data institutions must collect and relay on cross-border payments.

The 2020 Proposal

Jointly issued by FinCEN and the Federal Reserve in October 2020, the proposal would have lowered the threshold to $250 for cross-border transactions and would have expressly covered transfers involving convertible virtual currency (CVC). Had it been adopted, the change would have applied the Travel Rule's information-sharing requirements to a far larger pool of cross-border transfers, including those involving crypto assets.

The rulemaking followed broader international efforts led by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), whose Recommendation 16 — often referred to as the international travel rule — urges member jurisdictions to require virtual asset service providers to share originator and beneficiary information for covered transfers.

The proposal opened with a 15-day public comment period, drawing criticism from cryptocurrency industry participants, advocacy groups, and several lawmakers who said the window was too short and the compliance burden too heavy. Thousands of comments were submitted. In January 2021, FinCEN extended the comment period and said it intended to publish revised proposed rules. No final rule was ever adopted, and the proposal remained pending in the years that followed.

Effect of the Withdrawal

With the withdrawal, FinCEN and the Federal Reserve have ended the 2020 effort to cut the cross-border threshold. Existing Travel Rule obligations remain in effect unchanged, including the current $3,000 threshold for transmittals of funds — meaning no expanded data collection on smaller cross-border transfers takes effect.

Because the action ends the rulemaking rather than finalizing it, any future adjustment to the threshold or to CVC coverage would require a new proposal, published in the Federal Register and opened to public comment. The withdrawal also addresses only this U.S. rulemaking; FATF Recommendation 16 remains the international framework that the 2020 proposal had followed.

Source: COINOTAG