by James Mills

The United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) has announced a new rule that lowers the currency transaction report (“CTR”) limit to $200 for certain counties along the Southwest border of the U.S.

The normal threshold to generate a CTR is $10,000. Money services businesses (“MSBs”) that handle cash transactions—such as check-cashing locations or currency exchanges—must generate a CTR under federal law whenever a customer’s cash activity exceeds this amount. The new threshold, in these areas, is $200—which means that MSBs, including those operating ATMs, will be required to report these transactions, recording personal details about the customer.

This change was made to support President Trump’s executive orders, which, starting with a January 2025 order and followed by February designations, labeled Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent called this change a component of a “whole-of-government approach” to addressing “the significant risk to the U.S. financial system of the cartels, drug traffickers, and other criminal actors along the Southwest Border.”

The move only applies to certain areas along the U.S.-Mexican border. Two of the affected counties are in Southern California and five are in Texas, altogether comprising 30 ZIP codes but representing only a small section of the total U.S. southern border. None of the targeted areas are located in Arizona or New Mexico, and the reasons for the selections have not been explained.

It should be noted that even the $10,000 standard figure has been criticized and targeted for reform for decades. Civil libertarians have complained about the regulatory burden and possible privacy implications of requiring modest financial transactions to be reported to the federal government. The Cato Institute’s Nicholas Anthony wrote that “[f]inancial surveillance in the United States has long needed reform, but this move is in the wrong direction.” The CTR requirement originates in the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, with the Treasury Department issuing regulations setting the amount at $10,000 in 1972, and the amount has never been updated. According to consumer price index calculations, $10,000 in 1972 would be equivalent in value to roughly $75,000 now.

This policy change is part of a broader administration push to close the border, deter asylum seekers, and stymie the growth and operations of Mexican criminal organizations, which includes declaring them “terrorist organizations.” Government priorities have shifted drastically, and a large amount of military, police, and regulatory resources are being marshaled to support this effort. Even MSB customers and ATM users in seven counties along the Southwest Border will now see their daily activities caught up in this effort. 

Sources: cato.org; fincen.gov.

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login