A proposed Senate bill would raise the reporting thresholds for currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports and require the Treasury Department to adjust the amounts for inflation every five years.
The Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to file CTRs and SARs for transactions exceeding certain dollar amounts. The Streamline Act introduced by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and seven senators would raise the CTR reporting threshold from $10,000 to $30,000, and raise certain SAR thresholds from $2,000 to $3,000 and from $5,000 to $10,000.
In a statement, American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols noted the CTR threshold for cash transactions hasn’t been adjusted since 1972. “In today’s financial landscape, this requirement is not only outdated — it’s inefficient, ineffective and increasingly counterproductive, resulting in a flood of data with minimal law enforcement utility and growing privacy concerns for bank customers,” he said.
“Consistent with our strong support for common-sense BSA reforms that Treasury has advanced to allow banks to focus on real illicit finance risks such as fraud, we welcome this important effort to streamline and simplify complex reporting requirements to allow banks to focus on more targeted, risk-based efforts to combat financial crime and give law enforcement better tools to pursue real threats,” Nichols added.
