MSBCR Overview and Definitions

The NMLS Money Services Businesses (MSB) Call Report is comprised of four sections: company financial information, information about the licensee’s company and state level transactional activity, company permissible investments information, and transaction destination country information.

The development of the NMLS MSB Call Report draws from various reports required of states and seeks to replace and standardize individual financial and activity reports currently required by state financial regulators.

Purpose of the NMLS Money Services Businesses Call Report

The purpose of the NMLS MSB Call Report is to provide timely, comprehensive, and uniform information and reporting frequencies concerning financial condition, transactional activities, and compliance with state permissible investment requirements on entities licensed as money services businesses.

The objectives of the NMLS MSB Call Report are as follows:
  1. Provide state regulators with the information necessary to replace the unique reports currently required by approximately 36 states and to standardize reporting of financial condition information.
  2. Provide state regulators with information to most effectively supervise licensees, such as determining examination schedules, risk assessment analyses, monitoring compliance with state law and permissible investment requirements, and accurately calculate assessments, where applicable.
  3. Provide state financial regulators with the ability to develop detailed transactional activity reports with the ability to compare across state lines.
  4. Provide licensees with the ability to automate the provision and retention of financial condition, transactional data, and permissible investment amounts to one or more state regulators in a single uniform manner.
  5. Provide licensees with standard reporting frequencies for ongoing financial condition, transactional activity, and permissible investment reporting requirements.

State Regulatory MSB Reporting

Approximately 36 states require licensed money services businesses companies to submit quarterly or annual reports providing transactional activity and permissible investment amounts, often including information on in-state, foreign, and domestic transactions, permissible investment details, agent transaction details and volume and dollar amount of transactions completed. These reports are utilized by state regulators for a variety of reasons, including calculating assessments, risk assessment, scheduling exams, determining legislative compliance, and generating reports on transactional activity within a state and at the national level.

In addition to the reporting requirements detailed above, the majority of state money services businesses regulators require financial statements and/or financial condition information to be provided on an ongoing basis. NMLS currently has functionality that permits licensees to file a single financial statement with one or more regulators through the System. This existing functionality does not facilitate the use of financial information in data analytics tools that enable a more in-depth analysis to be completed.

NMLS Money Services Businesses Call Report Working Group

A working group of state regulators was formed in February 2015 to develop the NMLS MSB Call Report and accompanying definitions and policies. The roster of the NMLS MSB Call Report Working Group can be found in Addendum A of this document.