Money Laundering: The Volume of Currency Transaction Reports Filed Can
and Should Be Reduced (Testimony, 03/15/94, GAO/T-GGD-94-113).

The Bank Secrecy Act requires banks and other financial institutions to
file a currency transaction report for each transaction involving more
than $10,000 in cash. The number of reports filed has been steadily
increasing--as of April 1993 nearly 50 million reports had been filed,
and this figure could double in the next three years. Although these
reports are extremely useful in detecting and prosecuting money
laundering, GAO concludes that the volume of filings could be
substantially reduced without jeopardizing law enforcement. In fact, the
large volume of reports has made analysis difficult, expensive, and
time-consuming. Many of the reports being filed are of routine business
transactions that could have been exempted from being reported. GAO
supports the provisions contained in S. 1664 that would encourage
greater use of exemptions for routine transactions with no law
enforcement value.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-94-113
     TITLE:  Money Laundering: The Volume of Currency Transaction 
             Reports Filed Can and Should Be Reduced
      DATE:  03/15/94
   SUBJECT:  Money laundering
             Reporting requirements
             Law enforcement agencies
             Data bases
             Financial institutions
             Intelligence gathering operations
             Crimes or offenses
             Financial disclosure reporting
             White collar crime
             Financial records
IDENTIFIER:  Treasury Currency Transaction Report
             Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
             Treasury Enforcement Communications System
             California
             Florida
             Illinois
             Maryland
             New York
             Georgia
             Nebraska
             North Carolina
             Utah
             
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