Senate Republicans led by Tim Scott of South Carolina and John Kennedy of Louisiana have introduced legislation to update long‑standing Bank Secrecy Act reporting thresholds and index them to inflation, a step that comes amid President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive orders to digitize federal payments and curb what the White House calls politicized “debanking.”
In March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to transition to electronic disbursements and receipts, with limited exceptions, and to phase out paper checks by September 30, 2025. The order emphasizes fraud reduction and operational efficiency and states it does not establish a central bank digital currency. (whitehouse.gov)
On August 7, Trump signed the “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans” executive order, instructing regulators to remove guidance that could enable financial institutions to deny service based on political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities, and to review for potential unlawful debanking with possible referrals to the Justice Department. News outlets also reported on the move and its timelines. (whitehouse.gov)
Against that backdrop, Senators Scott and Kennedy unveiled a bill to raise reporting thresholds for Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) under the Bank Secrecy Act. Their proposal—the Streamlining Transaction Reporting and Ensuring Anti‑Money Laundering Improvements for a New Era (STREAMLINE) Act—would increase the CTR threshold from $10,000 to $30,000, raise SAR thresholds, and require the Treasury Department to adjust these amounts for inflation every five years. The Senate Banking Committee said the measure aims to focus enforcement on illicit activity rather than paperwork. (banking.senate.gov)
Today’s CTR threshold of $10,000 dates to Treasury regulations set in the 1970s and has not been updated for inflation in more than five decades, according to oversight analyses. While the Bank Secrecy Act became law in 1970, a Government Accountability Office–summarized review notes the CTR threshold was established by regulation in 1972 and has remained unchanged. (regreport.info)
Current SAR standards vary by institution and circumstance: for depository institutions, SARs generally are required for suspicious transactions involving at least $5,000 when a suspect is identifiable (with higher thresholds in some cases), while money services businesses have $2,000 and $5,000 triggers depending on how the activity is detected. The senators’ summary cites both $2,000 and $5,000 thresholds in describing the reforms. (law.cornell.edu)
Inflation underscores the push to revisit the dollar figures: $10,000 in 1970 is roughly $84,000–$86,000 in 2025 dollars, depending on the calculator, and U.S. inflation peaked at about 14.8% in March 1980 during the “Great Inflation.” (myamortizationchart.com)
Supporters cast the bill as relieving compliance burden without compromising security. “When banks and credit unions are bogged down by red tape and outdated reporting rules, it’s small businesses and everyday Americans who pay the price,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Sen. John Kennedy added, “Washington’s financial reporting requirements may have made sense in the seventies, but in today’s economy, they simply weigh down our financial institutions.” (banking.senate.gov)
The legislation does not address a separate priority frequently raised by Trump: requiring explanations when banks close accounts. Earlier this year, the Trump Organization and related entities sued Capital One in Florida state court, alleging the bank closed more than 300 accounts in 2021 without cause; Capital One has denied acting for political reasons. (apnews.com)
Eric Trump recounts the closures in his memoir, Under Siege, published October 14, 2025; in an excerpt quoted by the Daily Wire, he cites a letter stating, “Your account has been closed,” and says it arrived “via overnight mail” effective March 21, 2021. (The exact language is from the Daily Wire’s report; the publisher lists the book but does not reproduce the excerpt.) (simonandschuster.com)
