ABA today submitted a comment letter to the Office of Management and Budget in response to a 30-day notice published by FinCEN under the Paperwork Reduction Act seeking re-approval, without change, of the existing information collection requirements relating to currency transaction reports and Suspicious Activity Reports that banks must file.
ABA previously submitted comments to FinCEN on April 5 regarding what the association characterized as “FinCEN’s mistaken assumptions and substantial underestimate of the burden associated with complying “with the nearly 80-year-old currency reporting requirement. Eighty-seven percent of ABA survey respondents disagree with FinCEN’s estimate of the time associated with collecting CTR information. FinCEN has not increased the burden estimate associated with filing CTRs, nor has it adjusted the burden estimate for filing SARs, despite having received comments critical of that burden estimate, ABA said.
“FinCEN is requesting re-approval of information of unnecessary CTR forms that pale in utility to SARs, and in many cases are intentional duplicates—absent a useful explanation of the suspicious activity,” ABA wrote. “Congress has directed FinCEN to review BSA reporting requirements to ensure they are ‘highly useful’ and make necessary improvements.” ABA urged OMB to condition re-approval of CTR information collection on a deadline by which FinCEN will commence both a survey to make an accurate assessment of CTR burden, as well as a formal review of the CTR rule, to improve it.
