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Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 15:44:45 -0500
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From: believer@telepath.com
Subject: IP: US Easing Bank Rules on Big Cash Transactions
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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
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Robert A. Hettinga