Currency transaction report

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A currency transaction report (FinCEN 104) is a banking form used in the United States to assist in the prevention of money laundering. It came into existence with the passage of the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, better known as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), in 1970.

A CTR is filed by a bank teller upon a currency transaction exceeding $10,000 by a person in a single banking day. A bank employee who processes such a transaction must complete a CTR immediately following the transaction and have their supervisor review it. The forms must be completed and filed on each deposit, withdrawal, currency exchange, or cash wire transfer over the $10,000 limit. Multiple transactions totaling more than $10,000 of currency in one banking day must be counted as one transaction, and reported accordingly. Used in this context, currency means cash, coins, or other monetary instruments that transfer ownership solely by transfer of physical possession of the instrument.

When the first version of the CTR was introduced, the only way a suspicious transaction of less than $10,000 was reported to the government was if a bank teller called an agent and provided the information. This was due, primarily, to the concern by financial institutions about the right to financial privacy. On October 26, 1986, with the passage of the Money Laundering Control Act, the right to financial privacy was no longer an issue. As part of the Act, Congress had stated that a financial institution could not be held liable for releasing suspicious transaction information to law enforcement. As a result, the next version of the CTR had a suspicious transaction check box at the top. This was in effect until April 1996 when the suspicious activity report (SAR) was introduced.