A customer comes in with 3 gentlemen. They apparently paid him $13,200.00 in cash for something he built them but he would not elaborate on what it was.

Customer wanted us to verify the money as it was all new $100.00 bills, which we did. Then he kept $4,900.00 and deposited $8,300.00 into his checking account.

How would you handle it?

I'm thinking of treating the cash as an exchange since it did cross the counter & then it's all reportable? We did not get identifying information on the other three gentlemen - which I don't really think is necessary anyways ...

Interesting. I agree that a CTR should be filed since he brought more than $10,000 into the bank and would file it as an exchange. The other 3 "gentlemen" would not be included in the CTR. I would also consider filing a SAR and would document the decision either way.

I think you can make an argument either way, but agree that filing the CTR with the "currency exchange" piece is the safest approach.

I have a similiar situation... Customer comes in today goes to SDB comes out with a very large amount of cash.. wants it verified and asks for it to be handed back.(no money went into an account).Would you run this as a currency exchange and do a CTR, even though what was handed back was exactly as was given to her . So we have a trail as to this transaction?

I'm confused? Since when do banks perform a currency verification service?? Of what value is it to the bank to do this and what liability does it present? I would hope you have an automated way to do this and it is not some teller sitting there doing it by taste and feel

I would not be performing such an action and would recommend that the customer contact the secret service if they want their currency verified or buy a counterfeit pen. If you run across something that you think is counterfeit, the individual realizes that the bank will seize it and not return it to the individual - right. They could also start indicating that the teller and bank stole some of the money during the "verification" process.

I can see a huge scene in the lobby over something like this as the individual already probably is playing with a short deck.

I am sorry for that confusion..Customer asked teller to verify amount of money that was there and asked for it back. The teller assumed the customer was going to deposit it, but the customer did not.

That really is kind of bizarre...glad he didn't want his car washed too. Chutzpah.

Now, you're stuck with trying to figure out whether it's suspicious...

it is suspicious and will be treated as such. Would a CTR be warranted and done as a currency exchange in this matter?

I would. The money left the customer's control.

Thanks, thats what I was thinking.It did cross the counter.

TASTE? LOL!

In our situation, the customer was an employee's husband. Not suspicious, he just wanted to make sure the people who were giving him the cash weren't giving him funny money. We do have an automated machine that checks for counterfeits. Ordinarily we wouldn't make it a practice to be an official verifier ...