Exempting Licensed Check Cashing Businesses

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Question:

Can a licensed check cashing business be exempted from CTR filing? I have always thought if they were licensed it was OK to exempt them, but now I am getting conflicting information.

Answer:

I hate to sound like a government quoting agent....but I'll quote directly from 103.22(d)(6)(viii) of the BSA Regulations:
Ineligible businesses. A business engaged primarily in one or more of the following activities may not be treated as a nonlisted business for the purposes of this paragraph (d): serving as financial institutions or agents of financial institutions of any type....."

In 103.11 (uu) the regulation breaks down money services businesses to include currency dealer or exchange; check casher; issuer of traveler's checks and money orders; money transmittors, etc.

In short a check cashing business can never be exempt, licensed or not. I know of one bank that was fined heavily by FinCEN for doing so.

First published on BankersOnline.com 12/3/01