FinCEN Ruling 2000-1: Guidance on Completing CTR Section A for Transactions on Behalf of Others

FinCEN Rulings
FinCEN Ruling 2000-1.
August 31, 2000
Dear [ ]:
You have asked how should properly report certain currency transactions on Form 4789 (a "CTR") in the circumstances described below. Your question was originally raised in a letter dated August 16, 2000, which was forwarded to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”).1 There have also been follow-up conversations with my office. Our conversations make clear that the Bank supports both the spirit and intent of the Bank Secrecy Act (the "BSA"), and we appreciate the diligence shown by you and your colleagues in seeking to confirm how to properly comply with the BSA. Facts We understand the relevant facts to be as follows. Customer 1 is a seafood processing company. When it purchases seafood from a shrimpboat captain (or similar seafood supplier boat business), it customarily writes a check for the amount of the purchase price, drawn on Customer 1’s account at the Bank, to the captain. The captain, in turn, endorses the check back to Customer 1, who then sends an employee to the Bank to cash the check. The Bank believes that Customer 1 uses the currency received when the check is cashed to pay the seafood supplier, ultimately, in currency. Customers 2 and 3 are also seafood processing companies that are customers of the Bank. Customers 2 and 3, like Customer 1, engage in the transactions described above to pay seafood suppliers for seafood. Question 1-Completion of Section A of CTR Because Customer 1 purchases seafood from a number of boats, it often cashes several checks, endorsed back to it by the boat captains, on the same day. Some of those checks will be for $10,000 or less; others may exceed $10,000, depending upon the purchase price of the catch in each case. Often the total amount of the multiple checks brought in to the Bank by Customer 1 during a business day to be cashed for this reason exceeds $10,000, thereby requiring the filing of a CTR.