I've seen threads in the past that have stated that ATM withdrawals from non-bank owned ATMs need to be part of aggregation for CTR purposes. The CTR instructions state, "Multiple transactions must be treated as a single transaction if the financial institution has knowledge that they are by or on behalf of the same person and they result in either currency received (cash in) or currency disbursed (cash out) by the financial institution totaling more than $10,000 during any one business day." Since the currency isn't being disbursed by the financial institution do these types of ATM withdrawals really need to be part of aggregation? And if so, how do I correctly report the location of the withdrawal on the CTR?

Thanks for your thoughts!

In general, whether ATM withdrawals are aggregated is totally dependent on whether your system has the capability. Not every bank has the same capabilities, but if your report identifies them, you include them in the total amount.

The FinCEN CTR was not designed to accommodate non proprietary ATM transactions, probably in part because they would rarely be reportable except when aggregated with other transactions. The following was submitted to FinCEN in writing. They agreed it was correct and that answers provided by Helpline should be consistent.

Assume a bank customer withdrew a reportable amount in a lobby transaction. On the same day, three ATM withdrawals for $100 each were made at
* an ATM at one of the bank's branches and
* the bank's freestanding ATM at the shopping mall and
* an ATM of a different bank.

How would the CTR be completed?

Box 2a and "multiple transactions" would be checked and the person conducting the lobby transaction would be identified in Part I. The amount in item 22 would be the amount of the lobby transaction plus the $300 ATM withdrawals. Nothing would be checked in item 24 as a person conducting one of the transactions was identified. Item 27a (withdrawals) would be the same amount as item 22.

Part III of the report is the hard part. The question simply boils down to which ATMs are "financial institutions where a transaction takes place" for the purposes of Part III.

Here,

* the financial institution branch where the proprietary ATM is located must be included (the information is readily available);
* the freestanding ATM at the shopping mall is not a branch of the financial institution reporting the transactions and would not be included; and
* the non proprietary ATM would not be included as it is not a branch of the financial institution reporting the transactions. (Note that the reporting bank would have little or no information on branches at other banks; i.e. no address, no RSSD, nothing.)

Thanks for your insight, Ken. This was exactly what I was looking for!

We have a customer that conducted multiple transactions at a casino. The transactions added to over $22,000.00 and are showing as ATM transactions in our system. We generally do aggregate non-proprietary ATM transactions because our system is set up to identify them

How would we complete this CTR if none of the transactions occurred at a bank branch?

I may be wrong - but we're not required to file a CTR for cash transactions that happen at another financial institution.

You may file a SAR - but not a CTR

BSA requires banks to report deposits and withdrawals of currency without regard to where the transaction took place. If a bank has knowledge that the customer made a cash deposit or withdrawal from his account it would includable in calculating the amount reported on the CTR.

So how would a CTR in this situation be completed? We know who the ATM card is assigned to, but do not know for sure if it was that person that used it at the ATM in Las Vegas, and none of the transactions were conducted at a bank branch.

You do not indicate if your account is a sole owner or joint account but you should file the CTR showing a Person record for each person on the account and could check box 24b. You could take it 1 step further since you know who the ATM card is issued to so you can identify the person (probably by checking box 2a instead of checking 24b). In any event you are required to file the CTR and have all of the informaiton needed.

You need an "excuse" for not knowing who conducted the transaction. So, you check 24b, ATM. It does not make any difference who the cardholder is or that there are multiple owners on the account.


Post 15884 above is a primer for the issues regarding where the transaction took place with the critical observation being that the FinCEN CTR was not designed to accommodate this transaction. That is, Part III has several critical fields, but you have no information to put in them. Yet, it will not let you leave those fields blank.

I called the Helpline. They indicated that if the bank did not have the location information for the casino's ATM that the filing institution should use its own address.

So if I have a customer withdraw $10,000 in my branch, then go to the casino & withdraw $500 ... we'd have to file a CTR?

In my situation - our local casino now debits customer's accounts as ACH transactions ... so they don't show as cash withdrawals persay.

Can I ask for help with finding where "it doesn't matter where the transaction was completed" is listed in the reg?

The CTR instructions state the following:
"Multiple transactions must be treated as a single transaction if the financial institution has knowledge that they are by or on behalf of the same person and they result in either currency received (cash in) or currency disbursed (cash out) by the financial institution totaling more than $10,000 during any one business day."

Based on the instructions my opinion is that withdrawals at non-bank owned ATMs do not need to be required as part of the CTR since the FI is not dibursing the cash.

Each financial institution other than a casino shall file a report of each deposit, withdrawal, exchange of currency or other payment or transfer, by, through, or to such financial institution which involves a transaction in currency of more than $10,000, except as otherwise provided in this section.

In order to assert that ATM withdrawals from non bank locations were not includable, you would need to find the "except as otherwise provided" language it mentions. I'm saying it doesn't exist.

The person who reviewed the example above at FinCEN was a few grades above the Helpline, but you may want to call them to verify.

Okay, we are filing the CTR, however, do we need to check Box 24b ATM for the transactions or do we list all transactions as conducted on own behalf since we know the cardholder?

Are all of the boxes on line 24 "excuse" boxes or do they need to be checked when a portion of the transactions involved those reasons? Ex. ABC company has 10 deposits. 5 deposits are in the night deposit and 5 deposits are later brought into the branch. Do we check night deposit since we do not have transactor information on them or do we not check it since at least 1 transaction was conducted at a teller window?

Post 15897 above now contains the correct answer to your first question and some guidance on the really tough issue, Part III.

In a circumstance where you have multiple transactions and you only identified one of the individuals conducting the transactions, you do not need an "excuse" for failing to identify all of them. The filing institution would NOT check any box in Item 24 due to the fact that it identified one of the transactors.

Sorry to bring this up again - but another situation has caused this question to come up. & I am thoroughly confused with these posts. Ken - can you send me the link where that original letter was found?



So assume a customer withdraws $10,000 from the branch and then goes to a gas station and withdraws $200 from the stand alone ATM kiosk.

Our system is smart enough to identify the customer got cash, but what FI do we put? I don't know who owns that ATM?


Second scenario - customer withdraws $10,000 in cash from the branch, then goes to a different bank and cashes an on-us check at that bank for $10,000. We know they got cash because we did a 314b. Do we file a CTR then?

I did not think there was any requirement to aggregate with another FI's activity, which is what you have in both cases. SAR, yes.

I didn't find a letter, I submitted a question in writing.

On your first query, you include the withdrawal from the ATM, but you make no attempt to identify the location. You can't. They know that.

Your second query is not addressed anywhere above. I would not include funds from an on-us check cashed elsewhere. (To do so, you would have to say it was actually a withdrawal from your bank.) Also, if he made a $200 ATM withdrawal from the other bank, they would aggregate the cash outs and file a CTR. You would both be reporting the same transaction.

If you suspect he conducted two transactions at different banks on the same day for the purpose of avoiding the filing a CTR filing then you file a SAR.

So what's the difference in "knowledge" here between the two scenarios?

What's the difference between someone using a bank instrument (ATM or Check) & using it at another Bank to withdraw cash?

I know this is an old thread, but I have related questions, so thought I'd just add it to this existing info:

For ATM transactions - do you assume that if a card is embossed with a personal name that that person is the conductor of the transactions when used at an ATM?

What if a card is not embossed with a person's name but only the name of a business?
What if that business has only 1 signer?

What if transactions for related, but different entities', accounts take place only a minute apart at an ATM, do you assume that it was the same conductor transacting for each business if the same embossed name is on each card? What if there is no person's name on the cards used; do you assume same conductor because of timing and relationship of accounts?