Senate panel touts support for bill to raise CTR, SAR thresholds

The Senate Banking Committee published public support from ICBA and other groups for a bill to raise currency transaction reporting and Suspicious Activity Reporting thresholds.

Details: The recently introduced Streamlining Transaction and Ensuring Anti-Money Laundering Improvements for a New Era (STREAMLINE) Act would raise the CTR and SAR thresholds to $30,000 and $10,000, respectively, and index the CTR threshold for inflation every five years.

ICBA Support: ICBA this week expressed strong support for the bill in a letter to Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and John Kennedy (R-La.), saying:

• The updated thresholds would result in more targeted, useful information for law enforcement while allowing community banks to redirect resources toward serving their communities.

• The current reporting thresholds under the Bank Secrecy Act are significantly outdated and capture far more transactions than originally intended.

More BSA Advocacy:

• In a statement for the record for a House subcommittee hearing on FinCEN, ICBA in September said it strongly supports H.R. 1799, which would effectively implement a Government Accountability Office recommendation by raising the CTR and SAR thresholds.

• ICBA in August met with Treasury Department officials to discuss reducing the burdens of CTRs and SARs.