Kit Bond: “I rise today in support of this amendment to add S. 1664, the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 1993, to S. 1275. This…”

“I rise today in support of this amendment to add S. 1664, the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 1993, to S. 1275. This amendment will reduce the number of currency transaction reports which banks have to file under the Bank Secrecy Act. Senator Bryan, Chairman Riegle, and I introduced S. 1664 on November 17, 1993. I believe that this bill, added to S. 1275, the Community Development, Credit Enhancement and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1993, will help relieve bank regulatory burden improve compliance under the Bank Secrecy Act and better money laundering deterrence efforts. Action must be taken to relieve the banking industry of the burden of unreasonable regulatory requirements it now faces. The bank regulators currently require all kinds of burdensome compliance reports, activities and documents that cost significant amounts of time and resources. Consequently, banks, are generating too many reports and other paperwork of questionable value, instead of making loans. In particular, to help combat money laundering, banks have to file a Currency Transaction Report [CTR] for all currency transactions over $10,000. The American Bankers Association estimates that it cost banks almost $130 million to file 9.2 million CTR's with the Internal Revenue Service in 1992. The utility to the Government of this massive number of reports has yet to be proven.”