If we have a customer ask a teller, "What amount can I deposit to avoid the bank from reporting the cash deposit?" - what can that teller say? Can we just tell the customer that the bank is required by law to file a report on cash transations greater than $10,000 and say nothing more? I want to make sure we aren't facilitating or instructing the customer on structuring.

I know we need to file a SAR - especially since the customer proceeded to make two cash deposits of slightly less than $10,000 over the next two days.

One thing this has done is prompted us to provide each branch with a bunch of copies of FinCEN's CTR brochure to hand out in the future when questioned.

The standard response is to provide the brochure and avoid verbal discussion of the limits.

That's what I assumed the correct answer would be. What did banks do before the brochure came out?

There were (and are) brochures you can purchase that are a bit less explicit (don't mention any required reporting other than CTRs.)