News
Government Auditor Calls for Simplified Exemption Rules for Currency Transaction Reports
By Matt Squire
printA government auditor called on the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to simplify rules for currency transaction reporting exemptions and give financial institutions guidance on filing for such exemptions. The Government Accountability Office, in a report issued Thursday, said financial institutions shy away from seeking exemptions that would reduce the number of CTRs they must file every year because the rules are unnecessarily complicated and they fear regulatory reprisals. The GAO concluded in its study that CTRs are valuable to law enforcement and that financial institutions failed to show that that the burden of filing them is unnecessarily high. Those...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
As a deadline for the implementation of electronic Bank Secrecy Act reporting approached earlier this month, hundreds of financial institutions questioned whether they had too little time to comply with the requirements.
Hundreds of banks and credit unions are likely to miss a June deadline to comply with federal rules mandating that they file all anti-money laundering regulatory reports electronically.
A federal court fined a north New Jersey bank $5 million Monday for willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act in an attempt to disguise $35 million in suspicious transactions, including $5 million in structured deposits.
The United Kingdom's chief financial regulator Tuesday fined Barclays PLC more than $4 million for "serious weaknesses" in its securities transaction monitoring reporting, the largest penalty issued by the agency for such problems.
Banks should use client financial statements, tax returns and audits when determining whether a business can be exempted from currency transaction reporting duties, the U.S. Treasury Department said Monday.
The U.S. Treasury Department finalized rules Thursday, lightening the requirements for financial institutions to report transactions above $10,000 on certain customers.
The country's largest banking association proposed a sweeping overhaul of U.S. anti-money laundering enforcement that would create a governmental entity responsible for overseeing Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
A Nov. 1 deadline imposed by the Bush administration for finalizing federal regulations could effectively kill a FinCEN proposal that would reduce the currency transaction reporting burden on financial institutions.
The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has proposed amending Bank Secrecy Act regulations to reduce the paperwork banks do to exempt certain customer transactions from currency transaction reporting rules.
In a study expected to be issued Feb. 21, the Government Accountability Office is expected to conclude that CTRs filed by financial institutions provide essential information for law enforcement investigations, delivering a blow to industry calls for reporting relief.
U.S. regulators acknowledged the outcry from the financial industry for Bank Secrecy Act reporting relief but said they would not take any action until a government effectiveness study is released early next year, according to a congressional report released Thursday.
A bill that would reduce the number of Bank Secrecy Act related reports financial institutions must file won't become law because of opposition from law enforcement and a backlog of higher-priority bills on Capitol Hill, banking compliance experts say.
Leaders of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee have requested a study of the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing reporting requirements and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's efficiency in administering them.
U.S. banks with more than $20 billion in assets are assigning an average 33 employees to fulfill their Bank Secrecy Act compliance obligations, according a survey released Sunday at the American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference in Atlanta.
United Roosevelt Savings Bank and Eurobank, in cease and desist orders issued Tuesday, were instructed to look for transactions that should have triggered currency transaction reports or suspicious activity reports. Both were cited for other deficiencies in their anti-money laundering programs.
Financial services professionals on Thursday called on lawmakers to reform Bank Secrecy Act rules, which they say overburden their organizations, regulators and law enforcement with marginally useful anti-money laundering related reports.
Financial institutions with limited resources often dont seek exemptions for filing currency transaction reports because they are unable or unwilling to handle the required additional due diligence and regulatory scrutiny.
Criminals are seeking to launder their money through auto dealers to avoid the strict anti-money laundering requirements imposed on banks, money services businesses and other financial institutions.
The Seasoned Customer CTR Exemption Act would permit banks to exempt the accounts of certain longstanding U.S. business customers from filing requirements.
The measure, introduced Jan. 9 in the House of Representatives, would allow banks to exempt the deposit accounts of so-called seasoned customers from currency transaction report filing requirements.