Senate bill would increase $10,000 thresholds for financial transactions banks must report to feds

Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to increase the reporting thresholds for currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports under the Bank Secrecy Act.

The Streamlining Transaction Reporting and Ensuring Anti-Money Laundering Improvements for a New Era Act (STREAMLINE Act) will modernize the law that is intended to identify legitimate illicit financial activity rather than overwhelm financial institutions with excessive paperwork, GOP members of the Banking Committee said.

The reporting thresholds were established in 1970 under the Bank Secrecy Act to identify illicit financial activity. The thresholds have never been adjusted.

The bill mandates banks, credit unions and other financial institutions to help the federal government monitor and prevent financial crimes such as money laundering, terrorism financing and other criminal abuse.

Financial institutions must currently report certain financial transactions. A currency transaction report is required for cash transactions above $10,000, and a suspicious activity report is required for transactions exceeding $2,000 or $5,000, depending on the situation.

The STREAMLINE Act, authored by Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, would raise these thresholds from $10,000 to $30,000, $2,000 to $3,000, and $5,000 to $10,000.

It would also require the Treasury Department to adjust these amounts every five years to account for inflation.

“For decades, banks and credit unions have been weighed down by outdated reporting requirements and layers of unnecessary paperwork that make it harder for them to serve consumers and small businesses,” said Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican.

“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.”

Mr. Kennedy said that Washington’s financial reporting requirements may have “made sense in the ’70s, but in today’s economy, they simply weigh down our financial institutions.”

He said, “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.”

Banking institutions hailed the legislation.

“In today’s financial landscape, this requirement is not only outdated — it’s inefficient, ineffective and increasingly counterproductive, resulting in a flood of data with minimal law enforcement utility and growing privacy concerns for bank customers,” said Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association.