WASHINGTON – Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Tim Scott (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, have introduced the Streamlining Transaction Reporting and Ensuring Anti-Money Laundering Improvements for a New Era (STREAMLINE) Act, which they said would modernize the Bank Secrecy Act’s reporting requirements for currency transaction reports (CTRs) and suspicious activity reports (SARs).
America’s Credit Unions is among the groups that have expressed support for the legislation.
Kennedy and Scott said their bill is aimed at updating the law’s “outdated financial reporting thresholds to account for more than 50 years of inflation, reducing unnecessary paperwork and protecting more Americans from debanking.”
‘Cuts Red Tape’
“Washington’s financial reporting requirements may have made sense in the seventies, but in today’s economy, they simply weigh down our financial institutions,” Kennedy said in a statement. “My STREAMLINE Act cuts red tape and modernizes these requirements, so law enforcement can focus on real criminals—not debanking hardworking Americans or drowning our financial institutions in burdensome paperwork. It’s time to bring the Bank Secrecy Act into the 21st century and use a little common sense.
Added Scott in a statement, “For decades, banks and credit unions have been weighed down by outdated reporting requirements and layers of unnecessary paperwork that make it harder for them to serve consumers and small businesses. By increasing the reporting thresholds for currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports, we are bringing much needed modernization to a law that should root out financial crimes, not get in the way of everyday Americans.
Enacted in 1970
The senators noted the Bank Secrecy Act, a law signed in 1970 and requires financial institutions to submit a currency transaction report (CTR) for cash transactions exceeding $10,000 and a suspicious activity report (SAR) for transactions exceeding $2,000 or $5,000 depending on the circumstances.
The thresholds have not been updated since that time.
Kennedy and Scott said the STREAMLINE Act would raise these thresholds from $10,000 to $30,000, $2,000 to $3,000, and $5,000 to $10,000 respectively, and require the Treasury Department to adjust these amounts every five years to account for inflation.
Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Katie Britt (R-AL), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE.) cosponsored the STREAMLINE Act.
The Independent Community Bankers Association, American Bankers Association and America’s Credit Unions support Kennedy and Scott’s bill.
Full text of the STREAMLINE Act is available here.
