It's After July 1, 2000

Where Are Your Exemptions?
As of July 1, 2000 you must have designated a customer as an exempt person by filing the Designation of Exempt Person Form (TD F 90-22.53) with FinCEN. This is now the only means to exempt a customer under Tier II. The Tier I exemptions, for those businesses listed on the stock exchange, etc., remain unchanged.

FinCEN, in an effort to reduce the amount of reporting required, has made the process as simple as possible and it encourages financial institutions to take advantage by exempting all eligible customers. Any exemptions in place under the old system will be invalid starting July 1, 2000.

Eligible customers are those businesses that may be local but are cash intensive in nature and frequently deposit or withdraw over $10,000 in currency or businesses that use cash simply for payroll purposes. They must have been your customer for at least a year. And you must have the capability of monitoring the account to ensure the exemption is not abused and to watch for any reportable suspicious activity.

"Frequent" Cash Transactions
At the American Bankers Association Regulatory and Compliance Conference in May, your Editor asked the representative from FinCEN to define "frequent" as determined by that agency. Peter Djinis is Executive Assistant Director, Regulatory Policy for FinCEN. His response was very clear and concise. He said, "We said right from the initiation of the reporting by financial institutions that eight (8) transactions a year is considered to be frequent enough to warrant exemption. We have never changed that number."The new form also can be used by depository institutions to revoke or amend an existing exemption, and to renew biennially the exempt status of non-listed businesses and payroll customers, as required.

Copyright © 2000 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 10, No. 6, 2/00