Preparation Guidelines for completing the March 2011 version of FinCEN Form 103, Currency Transaction Report by Casinos.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") is issuing this guidance to assist casinos and card clubs in correctly completing FinCEN Form 103, Currency Transaction Report by Casinos (CTR-C). On August 1, 2008, FinCEN issued a revised version of the CTR-C that became mandatory for use by all casinos and card clubs on March 1, 2009. Major differences between this version and previous versions included designation of certain fields as critical fields that require an entry, and changes to the use of special responses indicating certain required data was not available. A review of CTR-C filings identified that filers are making significant errors in several areas. First, all types of filers are failing to follow form instructions for completing critical fields. Second, electronic filers are failing to follow electronic requirement for completing dollar amount fields. Finally, FinCEN identified other less-frequent errors that are discussed below.

FinCEN strongly encourages financial institutions to sign up and utilize BSA E-filing. E-filing will eliminate most of the errors noted below because preparers must enter the required data or a special response in critical fields. An overview of the benefits of using the BSA E-Filing System can be found in the E-Filing Brochure. Information on signing up for E-filing can be found at the BSA E-Filing Home Page or by calling 1-866-346-9478 (option 1).

Critical Fields:

The current CTR-C designates certain items as critical by including an asterisk (*) in the item title. For example, item “*13 Date of birth” is critical, while item “6 Doing business as (DBA)” is not. Critical items contain information of significant value to law enforcement investigations and statistical analysis of currency transactions.

When required data is unknown in Part I Section A of the CTR-C, the special response “XX” must be used to indicate the required data is not known or does not apply. The special response "XX" demonstrates to law enforcement and analysts that the information is unknown and the casino or card club did not unintentionally omit information for the critical item. This is allowed only in Part I of the CTR-C; “XX” is not permitted in Part II and Part III critical items. ¹

Furthermore, the only non-critical items on the form where “XX” is permitted as a response is “16 Customer’s Account Number.”

FinCEN’s review found that many casinos and card clubs failed to enter the special response “XX” in Part I Section A critical items when the required data was unknown or did not apply. For example, in 60 percent of CTR-Cs filed on organizations, the first name field did not contain the “XX” entry as required by form instructions. Additionally, in 38 percent of the CTR-Cs the customer Social Security Number (SSN) field failed to contain an entry. “XX” should have been entered if the information was unknown. Finally, almost 90 percent of the CTR-Cs with missing foreign customer addresses failed to contain “XX” in the state field.

The following detailed guidance explains how to correctly apply the “XX” response to those critical items in the Part I Section A when the data is unknown or does not apply.

• Item *3 “Individual’s last name or Organization’s name.” Enter “XX” when the individual’s last name or the organization’s name is unknown.
• Item *4 “First Name.” Enter “XX” when an individual’s first name is unknown, when the organization’s name is unknown, or when an organization name has been entered in item 3.
• Item *7 “Permanent address (number, street, and apt. or suite no.).” Enter “XX” when the entire street address is unknown. DO NOT enter “XX” in place of missing elements when a partial street address has been entered.
• Item *8 “SSN or EIN.” Enter “XX” when the Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number is unknown. Enter “XX” if the individual is a foreign individual who does not have a Social Security Number.
• Item *9 “City.” Enter “XX” when the address city is unknown.
• Item *10 “State.” .” Enter “XX” when the address state is unknown. Enter “XX” if the address country is not the U.S., Canada, or Mexico.
• Item *11 “ZIP Code.” Enter “XX” if the U.S. ZIP Code is unknown or if the address country is in a foreign country.
• Item *12 “Country code (if not U.S.)” Enter “XX” when the address country is unknown.
• Item *13 “Date of birth.” Enter “XX” in the MM position when the date of birth is unknown.
• Item *15 “Describe identification credentials.”
  • If box “14 c Organization” was checked, leave item 15 blank.
  • If all item 15 information on an individual is unknown, check box “z Other” and enter “XX” in the “z Other” text field. DO NOT enter “XX” in the “Issued by” and “Number” fields.
  • If the type of identification is unknown but the data for “Issued by” and/or “Number” is known, enter the known data, check box “z Other,” and enter “XX” in the “z Other” text field.
  • If the “Issued by” and/or “Number data is unknown but the other data is known, enter the known data and enter “XX” in the fields that have no data.
• Item 16 “Customer’s Account Number.” If there is no account number involved, enter “XX” in this item.

This guidance should not be applied to other FinCEN forms unless stated explicitly in those forms' instructions or other guidance.

Electronic Filing Requirements Dollar Amount Errors

The electronic filing requirements for the CTR-C state that the item “*31 CASH IN” total or the item “*32” CASH OUT” total will be space-filled when no cash in or cash out transactions are recorded. These totals are found in the field “Enter total of CASH IN transaction(s)” at the bottom of item 31 and in the field “Enter total of CASH OUT transaction(s)” at the bottom of item 32. Approximately 26 percent of all electronically-filed CTR-Cs had zero-filled cash in total fields when there were no cash in transactions recorded. Approximately 34 percent of all electronically-filed CTR-Cs had zero-filled cash out total fields when there were no cash out transactions recorded. In both circumstances, these fields should have been space-filled The use of zero-filled cash in/cash out totals in place of a properly space-filled field may adversely affect statistics on the number of CTRs reporting cash in or cash out transactions.

There is a similar problem in the item 31 and item 32 fields for recording individual transaction dollar amounts. These are fields “a” through “h” and “z” in item 31 and “a” through “i” and “z” in item 32. Approximately 16 percent of electronically-filed CTR-Cs contained all zeros in all transaction amount fields where no dollar amount was recorded. For example, the CTR-C reports that a cash-in transaction “a Purchase(s) of casino chips…” was conducted and then reports that the transaction amount was zero. These items should be space-filled when the information is not available.

All transaction types are reported whether or not a particular type of transaction was conducted. Electronic filing requirements state that only transactions that are conducted will be reported, with the remaining transaction fields space-filled in the electronic file. The presence of transactions with zero amounts may adversely affect statistics on the numbers and types of transactions being conducted.

The electronic filing requirements for the CTR-C are available on FinCEN’s public internet site at https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/e-filing_CTRCspecs.pdf.

Other Error Issues:

Other error issues seen in CTR-C filings included:

• Approximately 5 percent of paper CTR-Cs omit the casino legal name from critical item “*36 Casino’s legal name.” The legal name must be entered in this item even if it is identical to the entry in critical item “*35 Casino’s trade name.” This error was seen exclusively in paper CTR-C filings.
• Approximately 7 percent of all CTR-Cs had invalid nine-digit casino ZIP Codes that ended in four zeros (e.g. 234560000) in critical item “*41 ZIP code.” No valid nine-digit ZIP Code ends with four zeros. Filers must always enter valid five-digit or nine-digit ZIP Codes in item 41. This was almost exclusively an error on electronically-filed CTR-Cs.
• Approximately 4 percent of all CTR-Cs had invalid nine-digit customer ZIP Codes that ended in four zeros (e.g. 345670000) in critical item “*11 ZIP code.” Filers must always enter valid five-digit or nine-digit ZIP Codes in item 11. Filers must always enter valid five-digit or nine-digit ZIP Codes in item 11. This was almost exclusively an error on electronically-filed CTR-Cs.
• Approximately 9 percent of all CTR-Cs were missing an entry in critical item “*42 Type of gaming institution.” Filers must check box “a State licensed casino,” box “b Card club,” box “c Tribal authorized casino,” or box “z Other” on each CTR-C filed. If box “z” is checked, an explanation must be entered in the “z Other (specify)” text field.

This guidance should only be applied to the CTR-C form. Do not apply this guidance to other Bank Secrecy Act forms. Questions or comments regarding the contents of this Guidance should be addressed to the FinCEN Regulatory Helpline at 800-949-2732.