Court Upholds Fincen’s Anti-money Laundering Rule For Home Sales

A U.S. District Court judge in Jacksonville, Fla., announced her decision to uphold FINCEN’s anti-money laundering rule for homes sales and instructed the clerk to terminate all pending motions and close the case.

In a ruling issued on Thursday, the judge adopted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendations, granting the Financial Crime Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) cross motion for summary judgement in the lawsuit filed by Fidelity National Financial (FNF) regarding FinCEN’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulations for Residential Real Estate Transfers Rule. 

Filed in May 2025, the lawsuit lists FinCEN and its director Andrea Gacki, as well as the Department of the Treasury and its secretary Scott Bessent, as defendants. In the lawsuit, FNF claims that the rule, which was promulgated under the Biden administration, is “arbitrary and capricious,” and that the rule 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 status and ID numbers of all people involved — including minors, payment details and information about trusts and entities that are purchasing the property.

In early December, Magistrate Judge Samuel Horovitz filed a report in which he recommended that the court grant FinCEN’s cross-motion for summary judgment, which would result in the AML Rule being upheld. FNF filed an objection to this report in late December. 

Judge Berger ultimately agreed with Magistrate Judge Horovitz and supported FinCEN’s argument that the rule “was statutorily authorized by the Bank Secrecy Act,” and that the rule was the result of “reasoned decision-making by FinCEN.” 

The rule was slated to go into effect in December 2025, but in late September, FinCEN announced it was postponing the implementation of the policy from Dec. 1, 2025, to March 1, 2026. 

At the time, FinCEN said the decision was made to “reduce business burden and ensure effective regulation.”

FNF did not return HousingWire’s request for comment on the ruling.