From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: US Easing Bank Rules on Big Cash Transactions Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 15:44:45 -0500 To: believer@telepath.com Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/cash-transactions-reuters.ht... September 22, 1998 U.S. Is Easing Bank Rules on Big Cash Transactions By REUTERS WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department announced Monday that it was trimming its requirements for reporting large cash transactions. The measures had been introduced to try to curb money laundering. Banks had criticized the requirements, the Treasury said, "because they mandated repetitive paperwork" for routine transactions. The changes will lighten the banks' paperwork load but will make bankers responsible for acting as monitors and reporting anything to the authorities that they think is out of the ordinary and that might indicate criminal activity. The new rules will permit banks to conduct most transactions with "cash intensive businesses" without having to report to the Government under the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act. But banks will still have to file reports on transactions of $10,000 or more with individuals and with certain types of businesses. "This rule does not exempt banks from reporting suspicious activity involving those exempted activities," the Treasury said. "In addition, certain categories of businesses, such as real estate brokers, automobile dealers and money transmitters, may not be exempted." The reporting requirements were originally established to help law enforcement officials combat money-laundering by drug dealers and other criminals who pass large amounts through businesses and banks to give an appearance of legality. The new rules, published today in The Federal Register, will permit a bank to exempt a domestic business that routinely needs large amounts of cash simply by filing a form stating that the business is exempt. The business must have been a customer of the bank for at least a year. Banks, savings institutions and credit unions can begin using the new rules on Oct. 21. The Treasury said businesses exempted from reporting rules by a bank must have their exemptions reviewed every two years. But it said it was dropping a requirement that banks include details about all of a customer's transactions on the renewal form. In 1997, the Treasury said, more than 12 million currency transaction reports were filed. It said that as a result of the latest rules changes, as well as an earlier streamlining of reporting requirements for transactions between banks, financial institutions should be able to reduce such filings by about 30 percent. Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************