The lawsuit, filed in May 2025, names FinCEN and its director Andrea Gacki, as well as the Ministry of Finance and her secretary Scott Bessent, as defendants. In the lawsuit, FNF claims the rule, which was promulgated under the Biden administration, is “arbitrary and capricious” and will cause “irreparable harm.”
The rule requires title firms to report specific details on all-cash home purchase transactions. These include the names, addresses, dates of birth, citizenship and ID numbers of all persons involved – including minors, payment details and information about trusts and entities purchasing the property.
In early December, Magistrate Judge Samuel Horovitz filed a report recommending that the court grant FinCEN’s counterclaim for summary judgment, which would result in the AML rule being upheld. The FNF filed an objection to this report at the end of December.
Judge Berger ultimately agreed with Magistrate Judge Horovitz and supported FinCEN’s argument that the rule was “legally authorized by the Bank Secrecy Act” and that the rule was the result of “reasoned decision-making by FinCEN.”
The rule was supposed to go into effect in December 2025, but in late September FinCEN announced it would delay implementation of the policy from December 1, 2025 to March 1, 2026.
At the time, FinCEN said the decision was made to “reduce operating costs and ensure effective regulation.”
FNF did not return HousingWire’s request for comment on the ruling.
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