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Difficulty: Very hardAnti-Money Laundering (AML), KYC, and Sanctions Compliance

A retail customer opens an account at a broker-dealer and makes an initial deposit of 9,500inphysicalcashatabranchoffice.Onthenextbusinessday,thecustomercompletesanincomingwiretransferof9,500 in physical cash at a branch office. On the next business day, the customer completes an incoming wire transfer of 4,000 from an offshore bank account with no clear economic purpose. The compliance officer suspects that the cash deposit was intentionally structured below federal cash reporting limits and that the wire transfer involves potential illicit activity. Under FinCEN and FINRA rules, which compliance obligation must the member firm fulfill?

  1. File a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with FinCEN within 30 calendar days of detection because the transactions aggregate to $5,000 or more and involve potential money laundering or structuring.Answer
  2. B
    File a Currency Transaction Report (CTR) with FinCEN within 15 calendar days because the total combined value of the cash and wire transfer exceeds $10,000.
  3. C
    File a Currency Transaction Report (CTR) within 30 calendar days because currency structuring automatically converts suspicious wire activity into a CTR requirement.
  4. D
    Maintain internal firm records of the activity without reporting to FinCEN, as no single cash deposit exceeded the $10,000 regulatory reporting threshold.

Answer

The firm must file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with FinCEN within 30 calendar days because the transaction pattern involves $5,000 or more in suspicious activity and potential structuring.
The correct response identifies that suspicious transactions aggregating to 5,000ormore—includingsuspectedcashstructuringbelow5,000 or more—including suspected cash structuring below 10,000 and unexplained offshore wire transfers—mandate the filing of a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with FinCEN within 30 calendar days of detection.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the Currency Transaction Report (CTR) requirements.
A CTR is required only for physical currency (cash) transactions exceeding 10,000inasinglebusinessday.Here,physicalcashwas10,000 in a single business day. Here, physical cash was 9,500 (below 10,000),andthe10,000), and the 4,000 was a wire transfer (non-cash). Therefore, no CTR filing is mandated.
Wire transfers and electronic transactions do not count toward physical cash limits for CTR purposes.
2
Analyze the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) requirements.
A SAR is required for transactions conducted or attempted through a broker-dealer that involve or aggregate to at least $5,000, where the firm knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect structuring, money laundering, or lack of commercial purpose.
The combined activity (13,500total)exceedsthe13,500 total) exceeds the 5,000 SAR threshold and exhibits red flags for both cash structuring and suspicious offshore wire transfers.
3
Determine the required filing timeframe for a SAR.
Broker-dealers must file the SAR with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within 30 calendar days of initial detection of the suspicious activity.
Federal anti-money laundering (AML) regulations establish a 30-calendar-day deadline for filing a SAR after identifying suspicious activity.

Key Concept

AML Reporting Thresholds: SAR (5,000+suspicious/structuringwithin30days)vsCTR(5,000+ suspicious/structuring within 30 days) vs CTR ( 10,000+ cash within 15 days)
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Anti-Money Laundering (AML), KYC, and Sanctions Compliance