When completing CTR/SAR form will an examiner criticize a bank if they don't complete an email address, phone number or gender even if we have it on file. These fields are not required and seem non critical to the report.

Yes. If they didn't want to know the information, they would not be asking for it.

21. Is a “form of identification” (Item 20) required for an entity? If so, what information would we enter in that field?

For technical filing purposes, Item 20 is a critical field on the FinCEN CTR (identified by the *). However, the release of the FinCEN CTR did not create any new obligations or otherwise change existing statutory and regulatory expectations of financial institutions in filing the new report.

The previous guidance for completing the identification field on the CTR for an entity instructed filers to check the “Other” box and enter “NA” on the line provided. That instruction is no longer valid given the addition of the “Unknown” box for Item 20. The addition of the “Unknown” box means that filers will no longer use “NA” or “XX” in certain fields.

Therefore, if the filing institution does not have information available or knowledge of a “form of identification” for the entity, it should check the “Unknown” box for Item 20.

FinCEN expects, however, that financial institutions will provide the most complete filing information available within each report, regardless of whether or not the individual fields are deemed critical for technical filing purposes. Examples of “forms of identification” for an entity could include the entity’s business license or incorporation documents. Please refer to 31 CFR § 1010.312 for additional information on identification requirements.

The expectation is that if you have the information you will include it on the form. If the information is on file and not included an examiner or auditor would likely criticize the omission.

We were criticized for not completing occupation once. The OCC expects you to KYC, which includes a customer's profession, a non-required field.

There is no such thing as "not required" fields. There are critical fields which will generate an error if they are not completed, and non-critical fields which will not generate an error.

As has been stated above, if you have the information you must provide it. FAQ #1 explains this distinction and the expectation to file a CTR with all available information. When the new CTR was released in April 2013, many vendors decided not to map non-critical fields into batch filing software. FAQ #2 clearly demonstrates that they were in violation and several institutions wound up discrete filing for a while.

1. What are the expectations for completing the Items with an asterisk (“critical”) and without an asterisk (“non-critical”) found on the FinCEN CTR or any other FinCEN report?

As explained in FinCEN’s March 2012 guidance (FIN-2012-G002), for both critical and non-critical elements, financial institutions should complete those Items for which they have relevant information, regardless of whether or not the individual Items are deemed critical for technical filing purposes.

For critical Items, financial institutions must either provide the requested information or affirmatively check the “Unknown” (Unk.) box that is provided on the FinCEN CTR and FinCEN Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) (or any other FinCEN Report).

For non-critical Items, FinCEN expects financial institutions will provide the most complete filing information available within each report consistent with existing regulatory expectations. Based upon feedback from law enforcement officials, such information is important for query purposes. However, the new FinCEN SAR and FinCEN CTR do not create any new obligations to collect data, either manually or through an enterprise-wide IT management system, where such collection is not already required by current statutes and regulations, especially when such collection would be in conflict with the financial institution’s obligations under any other applicable law. Therefore, a financial institution may leave non-critical fields without an asterisk blank when information is not readily available.

2. How do I meet my underlying obligation to submit a complete and accurate report if my filing software does not allow me to include known information for a field without an asterisk?

FinCEN expects financial institutions to have the capability to submit information for any of the data fields in the FinCEN CTR or SAR (or any other FinCEN report). In general, if your financial institution’s filing software does not permit the institution to include information in a field without an asterisk where information has been collected and is pertinent to the report, the financial institution should instead complete a discrete filing for those transactions until the software is updated. If a filing has been submitted in which such information was not included because of such a limitation in the filing software, an amended filing should be completed using either the discrete filing method or an amended batch filing, once the software is updated. Such software updates should be implemented within a reasonable period of time.

If your institution has questions regarding the applicability of this general guidance, please contact the FinCEN Regulatory Helpline at (800) 949-2732 for further information.

Oops, I meant non-critical in my post.

Thanks everyone for your responses.