We have a business customer in the building profession writes checks to contractors and suppliers, several of whom are not account holders, but come to our bank to cash their checks. One particular contractor in the past has received cash greater than $10,000.00 on one business day, either from cashing one check greater than $10,000.00 or two checks which, combined, exceed $10,000.00. I don't think that our customer is trying to aid or abet in "structuring" as only sometimes is there more than one check, for a sum total of over $10,000.00, issued at about the same time; other times it is just one check greater than $10,000.00. CTR's, of course, have been filed on all reportable transactions. Within the past few weeks, I have noticed the following...one check presented in excess of $10,000.00; cash for an amount of less than $10,000.00 given to the payee, with a cashier's check made to that payee issued for the difference. The first time I traced the cashier's check as having been taken to another local bank, who confirmed for me that the funds were deposited to the payee's account with them. Another similar transaction has occurred, but I do not yet know the disposition of the cashier's check. Do we need to log the cashier's checks sold on our Monetary Instrument Sales Log for items $3,000.00 through $10,000.00? Technically, the check was purchased via a transfer of funds from our business customer's account, and no currency actually was exchanged for that transaction. Also, is more than once instance of this type of thing any reason for filing a SAR? It is possible that the payee could be "structuring" although it could not be concluded for certain. The IRS already has several CTR's on file for the payee from past reportable transactions. How far do I need to go to track such instances? Would a 3rd time be the "magic number" for filing a SAR; would SAR's need to be filed continually if more of the same instances occur? I am relatively new to working with Bank Secrecy and would appreciate guidance in doing the correct thing. Thank you.

Mike,
Based on the information you provided, you would not have to record the information on the cashier's checks on the log since no cash was used to purchase the cashier's checks. If you are filing CTRs on the cashed check transactions over $10,000, that is probably all you need to do at this time. However, I would continue to watch the activity, and if the splitting of the customer's checks into cash and cashier's checks to stay under the $10,000 reporting threshold continues, I would consider filing a SAR for possible structuring. After you file a SAR, it is only necessary to "update" and file new SARs every 90 days.

Thanks for the information...that makes sense to me.