What is Structuring?

Structuring is the practice of executing financial transactions in such a way that the filing of financial reports to the government is avoided. This usually involves keeping individual bank deposits lower than $10,000. Once the $10,000 threshold is reached, banks are required by the Bank Secrecy Act to file a Currency Transaction Report with the government. To avoid the threshold, someone trying to deposit a large amount of money can break it up into many small deposits, which can be deposited into accounts at several banks. Structuring is commonly used by money launderers to avoid detection.

Example of Structuring

As an example of structuring, Alice has $200,000 that she does not want to have reported to the government. To avoid this reporting, she divides it into clusters ranging in size from $4,000 to $8,000. She then deposits these amounts at several banks over an extended period of time, using irregular deposit intervals. By taking this approach, she avoids triggering any automated cash reporting systems at the banks.