Definition and Overview
The Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization Act, designated H.R. 1799 in the 119th Congress, is proposed legislation that would make the most significant update to Bank Secrecy Act reporting thresholds since the act was first implemented in the 1970s, raising the Currency Transaction Report threshold from ten thousand dollars to thirty thousand dollars and the Suspicious Activity Report threshold from five thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars, with automatic inflation adjustments to both figures every five years thereafter.
The bill was introduced on March 3 2025 by Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia and passed out of the House Financial Services Committee on January 23 2026 by a vote of thirty to twenty-four. As of May 2026 it has not been enacted into law. The current legally operative BSA thresholds remain ten thousand dollars for CTRs and five thousand dollars for SARs.
The Case for Modernisation
The ten thousand dollar CTR threshold was set by the Treasury Department in the early 1970s. Adjusted for inflation to 2026 dollars, that amount is equivalent to approximately eighty thousand dollars, meaning the threshold now captures enormous volumes of entirely ordinary transactions including used car purchases, small business cash deposits, and routine commercial activity that were never intended to be within the scope of federal currency reporting requirements when the BSA was originally enacted.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that raising the CTR threshold to thirty thousand dollars would reduce the volume of annual CTR filings by approximately eighty percent, dramatically reducing the compliance burden on financial institutions while allowing law enforcement to focus on a smaller and more analytically meaningful universe of reported transactions. Supporters argue that the flood of routine CTR filings under the current threshold obscures genuine suspicious activity rather than highlighting it, reducing the effectiveness of the BSA reporting system as a law enforcement tool.
Key Provisions of H.R. 1799
The proposed legislation would raise the CTR filing threshold from ten thousand dollars to thirty thousand dollars for currency transactions at financial institutions. It would raise the SAR filing threshold from five thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars for most transaction types. It would require automatic inflation adjustment of both thresholds every five years based on changes in the Consumer Price Index, preventing the real value erosion that rendered the original thresholds obsolete. And it would align other reporting thresholds for money service businesses with the increased CTR and SAR thresholds on a proportionate basis.
Legislative Status as of May 2026
H.R. 1799 was introduced in the House on March 3 2025. It was referred to the House Financial Services Committee. On January 23 2026 it was ordered to be reported as amended by a committee vote of thirty to twenty-four. It is awaiting a full House floor vote. It has not yet been considered by the Senate. It has not been signed by the President. It is not law.
The current BSA thresholds of ten thousand dollars for CTRs and five thousand dollars for SARs remain in force.
Implications for Financial Professionals and Examination Candidates
Financial professionals and compliance officers should monitor the progress of H.R. 1799 and prepare their institutions for the operational changes that enactment would require, including updates to transaction monitoring systems, CTR and SAR filing workflows, and staff training programmes.
Examination candidates preparing for the SIE, Series 7, Series 63, or Series 65 should be aware of this proposed legislation as context for understanding the BSA framework, but should answer examination questions based on current law. Until H.R. 1799 is enacted, the correct answers on examinations remain ten thousand dollars for CTRs and five thousand dollars for SARs. FRC will update all relevant content immediately upon enactment.
Examination Relevance and Key Takeaways
The Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization Act is relevant context for any examination candidate or financial professional studying BSA compliance, representing the most significant proposed reform of BSA reporting thresholds in over fifty years. Understanding both the current legal thresholds and the proposed changes demonstrates the depth of regulatory knowledge that distinguishes elite examination preparation from surface-level study.
The core points to retain are these: H.R. 1799 proposes raising the CTR threshold from ten thousand to thirty thousand dollars and the SAR threshold from five thousand to ten thousand dollars; the bill passed the House Financial Services Committee in January 2026 but has not been enacted as of May 2026; current law thresholds of ten thousand dollars for CTRs and five thousand dollars for SARs remain operative; automatic inflation adjustment every five years is a key feature of the proposed legislation designed to prevent future threshold obsolescence; and FRC will update all content immediately upon enactment of any legislative change to these thresholds.
