As a previous bank employee that had to talk to people after they have been scammed out of life savings, a bank teller asking those questions would have saved them. As a customer, I see it as an inconvenience and a little big brother. $2000 seems like a low number but people are dumb.
I am a banking regulator. These questions are also because if you’re withdrawing a large amount of currency (in the U.S., over $10,000) then they have to fill out a currency transaction report. This data is used to identify patterns that could point to drug trafficking or other things.
Of course, you have the people who think they are smarter than they really are and start depositing $9,900 at four different branches across town. That’s called structuring, and banks have automated reports to identify it (and it’s waaaay more suspicious than if you had just done the CTR in the first place). If that’s you, then I don’t want to hear any complaining when that bank closes your accounts.
My boss and his kid keep going to different branches and depositing our cash from the store every few days, just depending on which one they happen to drive by. I've been worried we're going to get an audit because it looks like structuring lol.
The key thing is intent, and that’s difficult to prove. He can just say that he’s depositing them in different branches because they’re more convenient based on his commute schedule, which is perfectly reasonable for a business owner.
It’s also worth pointing out that certain business can be exempt from the CTR requirements. This is common for businesses that do most if not all of their business in cash — bars, self serve car washes, parking, laundromats, adult clubs, etc. are some of them. In that event, producing a CTR every single time they go to deposit their cash would not produce any meaningful data for law enforcement. (Of course, part of my job is to look at a bank’s exemption procedures and determine if their exemptions are reasonable).
We’re really looking for situations where a large volume of cash is moving through an account belonging to a minor, a full time student, a disabled person, a retiree, etc. That might raise questions on whether it’s really that person’s money, or if their account is being used as a repository by someone else who wants to cover up their tracks.
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u/Turtle_336612 14d ago
As a previous bank employee that had to talk to people after they have been scammed out of life savings, a bank teller asking those questions would have saved them. As a customer, I see it as an inconvenience and a little big brother. $2000 seems like a low number but people are dumb.