By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondents
A new U.S. bill would raise the threshold for filing CTRs [Currency Transaction Reports] from $10,000 to $30,000.
If passed into law, the proposal would also increase the thresholds for SAR [suspicious activity reports]. These are currently either $2,000 or $5,000, depending on the circumstances. They would be increased to $3,000 and $10,000, respectively.
Under the proposed STREAMLINE Act, the government would also have to adjust both CTR and SAR thresholds every five years, to account for inflation.
Republican senators said the Bill is aimed at ‘modernizing’ the Bank Secrecy Act’s reporting requirements for CTRs and SARs.
It was proposed by Senators John Kennedy and Tim Scott, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
‘[The] STREAMLINE Act cuts red tape and modernizes these requirements, so law enforcement can focus on real criminals,’ said Scott.
‘Not debanking hardworking Americans. Or drowning our financial institutions in burdensome paperwork.’
A CTR is a record of a transaction involving currency in excess of $10,000 in a single business day.
CTRs are viewed as possible indicators of illicit activity such as money laundering.
Various politicians and industry figures have pushed for the threshold to be raised, so financial institutions will not have to file as many alerts.
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