My name is Ellen Jett
Mills. I am Compliance Officer, OFAC Officer,
Privacy Manager, BSA Officer and Secretary of the
Board of Directors of Bank of the Bluegrass &
Trust Co. in Lexington, Kentucky. I have just
been through a BSA Examination, and I believe I
can offer some suggestions on the burden of Bank
Secrecy/anti-money laundering regulations facing
community banks.
Despite very public
statements that bank regulators are not operating
with a zero tolerance policy and despite claims
that regulators are not treating all institutions
like mega banks, the examiners in the field have
stated that they do not have the leeway to operate
except under a zero tolerance environment. This
environment can not possibly take into
consideration the less formalized risk assessments
of community banks.
Requiring Banks to
continuing filing for exempt status for
transactions between banks is an unnecessary
burden. If currency transactions with Federal
Reserve Institutions are already exempt, why not
exempt currency transactions between all FDIC
insured institutions? Treating
the exemption/revocation of exemption of banks as
a violation merely raises banks regulatory burden,
along with the number of violations cited. There
can be no added benefit of these extra forms
and the citing of these violations.
Requiring CTRs to be
filed within 15 days is an unnecessary burden when
the forms are not being reviewed immediately upon
government receipt. A 30 day limit would not
substantially increase the time the government
must wait for the information, but it would give
community banks with limited staffs the ability to
comply with the law with less violations.
13 Million CTRs filed
a year is overwhelming and so the bulk these forms
are not reviewed by government officials.
Increasing the thresh hold amount for filing a CTR
would reduce both the burden and number of CTRs.
Increasing the $10,000 threshhold to $15,000 would
decrease our CTR filings by an estimated 75% and
would not substantially increase the likelihood of
someone using our facility in an attempt to
launder money.
BSA/Anti-money
Laundering procedures are forcing banks to serve
as uncompensated law enforcement. Given this
reality, it would be helpful if community banks
weren't hammered for good faith efforts to comply
with the laws.
Sincerely,
Ellen Jett Mills
Bank of the Bluegrass
& Trust Co.
101 East High Street
Lexington, KY 40507
