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CUNA Regulatory Comment Call

June 30, 2003

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a proposal concerning the Currency Transaction Report (CTR). The Bank Secrecy Act and Treasury regulations require all financial institutions, including credit unions, to file a CTR of each deposit, withdrawal, payment, transfer or other transactions involving currency (cash) of more than $10,000 a day. If multiple transactions are made by or on behalf of any person, the financial institution must consolidate the transactions and report them as one transaction if the total exceeds $10,000. Currency transaction reporting assists the regulatory agencies and law enforcement with combating international terrorism and money laundering.
• A CTR is filed only on currency transactions. This means that cash of any country, including any coin or paper money of the U.S. or any other country, is included in the definition of currency.
• Under the proposal, the CTR form, which is formally numbered as IRS Form 4789, would be renumbered as FinCEN Form 104.
• In addition, the revised CTR form includes 2 new data collection blocks in Part II "Amount and Type of Transaction(s). The first block is Item 26a, "Foreign cash in." The second block is Item 27a, "Foreign cash out."
• The issue of exchange rate is clarified. In the instruction section, the draft revised CTR indicates that "[i]f foreign currency is exchanged, use the U.S. dollar equivalent on the day of the transaction…."
• The revised CTR includes a new item in Part III " Financial Institution Where Transaction(s) Take Place. Item 37a is added for listing a foreign country code.
• Finally, the revised CTR indicates that a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) number is the financial institution’s routing number.

Comments are due to FinCEN by July 18, 2003. Comments should be sent to: ATTN: PRA Comments " CTR Form, Office of Chief Counsel, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Department of the Treasury, P.O. Box 39, Vienna, Virginia 22183. Or you may e-mail comments to regcomments@fincen.treas.gov. Please submit your comments to CUNA by July 15, 2003. Please feel free to fax your responses to CUNA at 202-638-7052; e-mail them to Associate General Counsel Mary Dunn at mdunn@cuna.com or to Senior Regulatory Counsel Catherine Orr at corr@cuna.com ; or mail them to Mary and Catherine in c/o CUNA’s Regulatory Advocacy Department, 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, South Building, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004-2601. To obtain a copy of the draft CTR form, please contact us or go to CUNA’s website at

http://www.cuna.org/member/download/eguide_bsa_fratt.pdf.

1. Do you believe the proposed changes to the CTR form would serve to improve the usefulness of the form to law enforcement as well as to NCUA?
   
   

   Yes ______ No ______

   Please explain why or why not.

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2. Are there additional/other ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected on the CTR form?
   
   

   Yes ______ No ______

   If yes, what are those additional/other ways to improve the information collection?

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3. Do you agree that when foreign currency is involved, financial institutions should utilize the exchange rate as of the day the currency is presented for purposes of filling out a CTR?
   
   

   Yes ______ No ______

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4. Other comments?
   
   

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