Employee from my bank is asking for personal information after the fact

[Anonymous]

By AML/BSA, not only Banks are required to file CTR to report any cash transaction over 10,000.00(note the transaction technically has to be more than 10,000.00, like 10,000.01, if it's exactly 10,000.00 CTR is not required to file), any business is required as well, ex. Auto Dealership, Real Estate Firms..etc. Generally CTR consist 3 main parts. 1. The person who's doing the transaction, it will ask for that person's name, address, ssn, government issued ID information. 2. Who's benefiting from this transaction(why was this transaction occured). 3. Origin of the money if you are making a deposit, Where the money is going if you are making a withdraw. 

Even though how you do your banking is your choice, Banks are actually required by law to monitor any suspicious transactions. and like ghgirll123 said, KYC is getting tighter than ever. For example,  when you open an account these days, we are actually required to ask your current employment and current position, it's you don't want to tell me or just tell me you are umemployeed, but you regularly make few thousands deposit everyweek, someone will get in tough with you and trying to find out where the money come from. Worst case scenario if you are suspect of money laundering, and there are evidents, banks will report to the goverment. Or bank will force close your account. 

To be honest, Filing a CTR doesn't usually mean anything negative about you. Just answer the questions honestly, and usually nothing happens. a big no-no is to find ways to avoid having CTR filed. like withdraw 9,999.00 instead of 10,000.00, that actually creates more suspicion than you actually letting us file a CTR. 

[Anonymous]

"To be honest, Filing a CTR doesn't usually mean anything negative about you. Just answer the questions honestly, and usually nothing happens. a big no-no is to find ways to avoid having CTR filed. like withdraw 9,999.00 instead of 10,000.00, that actually creates more suspicion than you actually letting us file a CTR."

Yes, and then they end up filing a SAR. 

[Medic981]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"To be honest, Filing a CTR doesn't usually mean anything negative about you. Just answer the questions honestly, and usually nothing happens. a big no-no is to find ways to avoid having CTR filed. like withdraw 9,999.00 instead of 10,000.00, that actually creates more suspicion than you actually letting us file a CTR."

Yes, and then they end up filing a SAR. 

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And for those of us that do not know. What is a SAR? I suspect it doesn't stand for Search and Rescue.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the institution, it’s either SAR stands for Suspicious Activity Report or STM stands for Suspisious Transaction Memo.

This is usually filed when someone deliberately making withdraws or deposits just under the 10k mark to avoid the bank having to file CTR. It essential puts a red flag on your accounts and resulting your accounts being monitored on a regular basis.

Just to be clear, SAR/STM doesn’t always involve cash transactions, it includes any type of suspicious transactions. So if we suspect someone’s account is being abused usually the case with elderly customers, we will file an SAR/STM as well.

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the helpful responses. I forgot to update the thread yesterday so I'll do it now. I ended up going to the bank directly and talked with the employee saying I'd be much more comfortable giving my info in person rather than through email. When I asked why he needed it again, he did explain to me it was because the DL the bank had on file was an expired one and they needed to update it. Since I withdrew more than $10,000 he needed to report my withdrawal but couldn't do that with an expired DL on file. He did admit that he should have checked and fixed the file at the time when I was making the withdrawal but he had forgotten and appologized for the inconvenience. His explanation significantly put my mind at ease. Being forgetful is completely fine as I am a forgetful person myself I just wish he had explained better through email so I wouldn't worry.

[Save-n-Invest]

I visited my bank last week to redeem a savings bond. Small amount of money deposited to my low balance checking. The teller apologized in advance and explained that they are required to verify some personal informaiton. Good thng they did. The phone number on file was a hybrid of my current long time landline number and the suffix of my long ago family home landline number.  

I know they have current contact info in the office as they call regularly and bug me to bring in new money to deposit at a lower rate than the institution that is storing it for me now.  

[Anonymous]

Great info here. Does a CTR also extend to transferring funds to a different bank/institution? For example, if you were tired of a certain bank and wanted to transfer all of your money to one of your other banks who are already set up as a transfer account--would a CTR also be required?

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Great info here. Does a CTR also extend to transferring funds to a different bank/institution? For example, if you were tired of a certain bank and wanted to transfer all of your money to one of your other banks who are already set up as a transfer account--would a CTR also be required?

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Not if you do an ACH or wire - a CTR is only for physical cash.

[Anonymous]

Great! I was just about to do a account transfer between my Chase account and credit union in the five figures range and didn't want Chase to be like what the deuce man.

So knowing that the CTR only pertains to cash, is it safe to say that a CTR is only a concern with checks or going to the bank and withdrawing physical cash?

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@iv wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Great info here. Does a CTR also extend to transferring funds to a different bank/institution? For example, if you were tired of a certain bank and wanted to transfer all of your money to one of your other banks who are already set up as a transfer account--would a CTR also be required?

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Not if you do an ACH or wire - a CTR is only for physical cash.

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[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Great! I was just about to do a account transfer between my Chase account and credit union in the five figures range and didn't want Chase to be like what the deuce man.

So knowing that the CTR only pertains to cash, is it safe to say that a CTR is only a concern with checks or going to the bank and withdrawing physical cash? 

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Not checks. Just cash. A CTR is only concerned with actual cash - greenbacks. (Coins too, I guess, if you bring a wheelbarrow for them!)

That's not to say that non-cash transactions can't be flagged in other ways - a SAR doesn't require cash to be involved.

But you don't have anything to worry about from a CTR/SAR perspective here. Transferring less than 100k between two accounts you own? That's so vanilla a transaction that nobody would even blink. (Much larger transactions than that happen every day without issues...)