What's New: FinCEN Provides Educational Pamphlet on CTRs

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is providing an educational pamphlet, "Notice to Customers: A CTR Reference Guide," for financial institutions and their customers containing information on the currency transaction reporting (CTR) requirement. The pamphlet is provided as a resource for financial institutions to help address questions frequently asked by their customers.

For example, the pamphlet explains that large currency transactions are not illegal, and that financial institutions are required to obtain information from their customers when these transactions do occur. The pamphlet does not alter in any way a financial institution's BSA reporting requirements and explains that if a customer attempts to break up, i.e. "structure," transactions in order to evade the CTR reporting requirement there are potential civil and criminal consequences. In the pamphlet, FinCEN explains what constitutes structuring and provides examples of structured transactions.

The pamphlet may be found at:
http://www.fincen.gov/whatsnew/pdf/CTRPamphlet.pdf

A Spanish version of the pamphlet may be found at:
http://www.fincen.gov/whatsnew/pdf/espanal_CTRPamphlet.pdf

Information on Currency Transactions Reports is found in the Compliance chapter of The Gold Book.