A rulemaking that has been open since October 2020 is coming to an end: the US Treasury's FinCEN and the Federal Reserve jointly withdrew the proposal to tighten Travel Rule obligations for transfers that begin or end outside the United States. The withdrawal takes effect on November 9.

The plan would have lowered the cross-border threshold from $3,000 to $250, so the existing $3,000 limit stays in place.

The proposal would also have explicitly written convertible virtual currencies into the Bank Secrecy Act rules, forcing exchanges and custodians to collect and keep customer data on far more small international transfers. It drew nearly 3,000 public comments, many citing privacy and compliance costs.

The agencies pointed to changes in the digital asset industry and its regulation since 2020, but left the door open to separate rulemaking later, including in light of new stablecoin legislation. Any new proposal would go through public comment again.