The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has extended the deadline for financial institutions to adopt the agency's new Currency Transaction Report and Suspicious Activity Report until the end of March 2013.
FinCEN had proposed that the new reports be implemented by June 30, 2012, which is the same proposed date in which FinCEN transitions from a system designed for the submission of paper forms to filing forms electronically.
FinCEN has extended the deadline due to industry concerns about financial institutions having sufficient time to transition their internal processes and IT systems to the new reports. The agency said the later dater is going to make it easier for financial institutions to make the conversion when filing CTRs and SARs electronically.
These new reports have been developed in consultation with law enforcement and regulatory agencies and were already approved by the Office of Management and Budget.
FinCEN will assist financial institutions in making this transition by offering testing arrangements, demonstration reports and other technical information for the new CTR and SAR forms.
Additionally, FinCEN will continue to accept submissions to its Bank Secrecy Act that use the most current “legacy” forms such as the CTR, CTR by Casinos and industry specific SARs until the mandated use of the new reports in 2013.
There are currently thousands of financial institutions currently subject to BSA reporting and recordkeeping requirements for which the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is authorized responsibility, including depository institutions, credit unions, security brokers and dealers, insurance companies and mutual funds.
