Who would you identify when a person purchases a monetary instrument on behalf of a business? I tried to rationalize this to the extent that if a person purchased a check on behalf of another person you would still identify the person purchasing the instrument. So in this case would you still identify the actual purchaser? Makes sense to me but I wanted to obtain other opinions.

I assume your question is relating to the records of monetary instrument sales for cash of $3,000 to $10,000? If so, you are supposed to identify the "purchaser". That's not a term that's defined in the regulation, but I would say it's the person who actually comes into the bank, not the person on whose behalf they are acting.

We just had this come up too. Member of the Elks (or Lions or Earwigs) comes in with cash from a fundraiser and wants a $4,000 cashier's check issued to the nonprofit organization. I agree BSA seems to indicate that the "purchaser" is the one coming to the window but in reality, in this case, he is only the agent of the true purchaser. Anyone have any solid guidance/reference for an answer to this one?

Found the answer to my own question.

The BSA requires the following:

(2) If the purchaser does not have a deposit account with the financial institution:
(i)(A) The name and address of the purchaser;
(B) The social security number of the purchaser, or if the purchaser is an alien and does not have a social security number, the alien identification number;
(C) The date of birth of the purchaser;
(D) The date of purchase;
(E) The type(s) of instrument(s) purchased;
(F) The serial number(s) of the instrument(s) purchased; and
(G) The amount in dollars of each of the instrument(s) purchased.

(ii) In addition, the financial institution shall verify the purchaser's name and address by examination of a document which is normally acceptable within the banking community as a means of identification when cashing checks for nondepositors and which contains the name and address of the purchaser, and shall record the specific identifying information (e.g., State of issuance and number of driver's license).

The above requirements clearly indicate that the BSA requires the identity of the individual conducting the transaction, otherwise the requirements would be in terms indicating a TIN would be acceptable and would not ask for a birth date.

My conclusion: "purchaser" = person who comes up to the teller window.

The regulation used to require for "purchasers" who where not deposit account holders, that we maintain information about that person and any third parties on whose behalf the transaction may have been completed for. While information on the third party is no longer required, I think this seems to indicate that information must be obtained on the person actually doing the transaction rather than the business for whom they are conducting it for.

That said, if an employee used 4,000 cash to purchase a cashiers check with the business listed as remitter, and also deposited 7,000 cash to the business account, information on the employee would be kept to meet the Monetary Instrument rules since the employee is conducting the purchase, but the business would be listed in section A on the CTR and the employee in section B.

Anyone agree/disagree?