Recently, anti-money laundering legislation has concentrated less on reporting transactions that meet specific threshold amounts, and more on reporting specific transactions deemed "suspicious." In 1996, FinCEN established a single uniform reporting system in order to reduce the banking communities paperwork. In the same year, it reduced financial institutions' burdens, eliminating currency transaction reporting in cases "that have little or no value for law enforcement purposes." (FinCEN) For example, by and large, "currency transactions over $10,000 are no longer required to be automatically reported as such if they involve a bank and another bank in the United States, or a federal state or local government or a corporation whose stock is listed on the New York or American Stock Exchanges or designated as a NASDAQ National Market Security or any subsidiary that is consolidated with a listed corporation for federal income tax reporting purposes." (FinCEN)

FinCEN's intention is to free up time so that agencies can concentrate their efforts on financial transactions involving known or suspected money laundering. This new system, established in April of 1996, known as Suspicious Activity Reporting or SAR's, allows financial institutions' discretion when filing these reports. The more voluntary nature of these reports protect bank customers and decreases financial institutions from being subject to customer liability. Banks may file a SAR for cash transactions of any amount that they deem suspicious. (Money Laundering Alert, September, 1995, pg. 3)

Accordingly:

Most U.S. banks have adopted so-called "know your customer" policies over the past few years to help them improve their identification of financial transactions involving known or suspected money laundering, according to the American Bankers Association. Under these know your customer policies, which are currently voluntary but which the Treasury plans to make mandatory in [the future], financial institutions are to verify the business of a new account holder and report any activity that is inconsistent with that type of business. According to the American Bankers Association, these policies are among the most effective means of combating money laundering, and the majority of banks have already adopted such policies. (Money Laundering by JayEtta Z. Hecker)