Normal
I was interested in what a bank can, and cannot do. So I went to the Federal Reserve website and did a bit of reading. Each state, and bank has its own regulations, but has to follow federal rules. The questioning bothered me but I found the source and reasoning for it, and you cant fault the employee for it. Federal law requires banks to complete forms for large and/or suspicious transactions as a way to flag possible money laundering. These forms go to the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN"). Federal law defines a "large" transaction as a transaction or series of transactions totaling more than $10,000. A suspicious transaction is one where the institution has reason to believe that, or is unsure whether, there is suspicious or illegal activity going on. A bank faces large money penalties and its employees may be imprisoned for not complying with the federal law. The bank has to have on file the methods of identifying their version of "suspicious" (c.i.p)just incase they are audited for a transaction by the Feds. Thus, the reason one bank may cash your check without question and another may not. It seems ridiculous that you may have to shop for a bank that does not consider your type of check "suspicious" but it may be the requirement if you(or anyone) wants to continue using the check method. We know we are not criminals..but it sucks to feel like one because of this scrutiny.
I was interested in what a bank can, and cannot do. So I went to the Federal Reserve website and did a bit of reading. Each state, and bank has its own regulations, but has to follow federal rules. The questioning bothered me but I found the source and reasoning for it, and you cant fault the employee for it.
Federal law requires banks to complete forms for large and/or suspicious transactions as a way to flag possible money laundering. These forms go to the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN"). Federal law defines a "large" transaction as a transaction or series of transactions totaling more than $10,000. A suspicious transaction is one where the institution has reason to believe that, or is unsure whether, there is suspicious or illegal activity going on. A bank faces large money penalties and its employees may be imprisoned for not complying with the federal law. The bank has to have on file the methods of identifying their version of "suspicious" (c.i.p)just incase they are audited for a transaction by the Feds. Thus, the reason one bank may cash your check without question and another may not. It seems ridiculous that you may have to shop for a bank that does not consider your type of check "suspicious" but it may be the requirement if you(or anyone) wants to continue using the check method. We know we are not criminals..but it sucks to feel like one because of this scrutiny.
