Santa Clara Law Review Volume 50 | Number 2 Article 4 1-1-2010 Redefining the Bank Secrecy Act: Currency Reporting and the Crime of Structuring Courtney J. Linn Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Courtney J. Linn, Redefining the Bank Secrecy Act: Currency Reporting and the Crime of Structuring, 50 Santa Clara L. Rev. 407 (2010). Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview/vol50/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Santa Clara Law Review by an authorized administrator of Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. REDEFINING THE BANK SECRECY ACT: CURRENCY REPORTING AND THE CRIME OF STRUCTURING Courtney J. Linn* I. INTRODUCTION The Bank Records and Foreign Transactions Act of 1970 (BSA) requires financial institutions to record (Title I) and report (Title II) information about their customers' transactions, particularly those involving large amounts of currency. 1 The requirements rest on the Congressional finding that BSA records and reports have a high degree of usefulness for law enforcement, tax, intelligence, and regulatory authorities. After a prolonged period of inaction that lasted well into the 1980s, financial institutions complied with the BSA's requirements by sending ever-increasing numbers of reports to the government. This widespread compliance in turn led money launderers, tax evaders, and others who did not want the government to know about their financial activities, to "structure" transactions to evade the BSA.2 *Courtney J.