Topic: Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs)
-
We have a business customer that operates a gas station/convenience store. The customer cashes checks for its customers and is required to register as a money services business with FinCEN, which it has. Does this customer also need to register with the State of Illinois as a check casher? If so, where do I look to see if they are already registered?
—
by
The principal law in Illinois regulating check cashing performed by non-financial institutions is the Illinois Currency Exchange Act (CEA). However, a money services business (MSB) is not automatically required to register as a currency exchange under the CEA. Based on your stated facts, we think it unlikely that this customer would be required to become…
-
We have a customer that recently purchased a $28,000 cashier’s check with cash to pay the winner of a drawing. The customer also recently deposited $77,000 in cash proceeds from the drawing. How do we fill out the currency transaction report (CTR) to incorporate both transactions? On Item 21 of the CTR form, we are supposed to list the total “cash in” amount for the entity, where we included the $77,000 deposit. But where do we add the cashier’s check purchase? Do we add a line to Item 21? Also, should we create a Part I (Person Involved in Transaction) for our bank for the cashier’s check purchase, because our bank was involved in that currency transaction?
—
by
In our view, the appropriate place to list the individual amounts of the deposit and the cash purchase of the cashier’s check is in Item 25 on the CTR. Item 25 is used to identify the amount and type of each individual “cash in” transaction, along with the total of all the “cash in” transactions.…
-
Two years ago, we reported an abandoned safe deposit box to the State Treasurer. Recently, the Treasurer requested that we send the contents ($26,000 in currency) in a cashier’s check. If we comply, do we need to file a currency transaction report (CTR)? FinCEN informed us that we should file a CTR, listing the customer as the “Person on whose behalf transaction was conducted.”
—
by
We agree that your bank should file a CTR, since issuing a cashier’s check constitutes a currency transaction between the bank and your customer, and it involves more than $10,000. There are several exemptions to the CTR filing requirements, including an exemption for currency transactions between banks and state agencies. However, there is no currency…
-
When filing a CTR on a business, should we report the address of the business when there is no person stationed at that address and the headquarters of the business has a separate address? For example, where a Laundromat has no attendant and receives mail at the corporation’s address on file with the Secretary of State and the IRS?
—
by
We believe that the CTR should use the address of the business headquarters, not the address of the physical location where the reportable transaction took place. FinCEN addresses analogous situations in its guidance, in which a business has multiple locations and where the reportable transaction takes place at a location separate from the business headquarters.…
-
A husband and wife both withdrew cash from their joint deposit account on the same day. Both withdrawals were under $10,000 but totaled over $10,000. We decided to aggregate the withdrawals and file a currency transaction report (CTR) because they were made for the same reason (to pay for a medical procedure for the husband’s mother). Were we right to aggregate the transactions, or should we file an amended CTR?
—
by
We believe it was appropriate to aggregate the transactions. Because both of the withdrawals from the spouses’ joint account benefitted the husband, the CTR filing requirements appear to require aggregation. In general, multiple transactions in a single day should be aggregated when “the financial institution has knowledge that they are by or on behalf of…
-
One of our customers is a gas station and convenience store. It has daily cash transactions of over $10,000, so we would like to designate it as exempt from the CTR filing requirements. We are not aware of any potential ineligible activities other than sales of lottery tickets. Are we required to collect the customer’s financial statements before making that designation?
—
by
No. Depending on the customer’s activities, you may be required to collect additional information, but that would not necessarily include financial statements. As part of the exemption process, your institution must “take such steps to assure itself” that the customer is exempt and document “the basis for its conclusions.” For a business that is not…