[raincom]

These days, AML algos look at cash transactions in a sliding window fashion: $2k ATM deposit on Jan 1, 2022; $3k cash deposit on Jan 21, 2022; $3k cash deposit on Feb. 28, 2022; $3k cash deposit on March 18, 2022. Boom, in the span of 3 months, $11k cash deposits, back office (not tellers) can file a SAR.

[nulbyte]

Sort of. If these are normal transactions given the customer's trade, no report is made. SARs are only filed if you are suspicious (that's what the S stands for) that a crime has occurred. This is where knowing your customer comes into play.

CTRs, on the other hand, have a limit of $10,000, and while it is aggregate, it's aggregated over a single business day. CTRs do not require suspicion. They are routinely filed for ordinary, legal transactions.

[raincom]

Just go to bankersonline.com and see the kind of responses there. These AML folks rather file SARs for every trivial thing than otherwise.