Geographic targeting orders in 2026: who they affect and what they require

Three dates in 2026 shaped what a BSA officer files today:

• 28 February 2026. The residential real estate GTOs for title insurers expired.
• 19 March 2026. The Eastern District of Texas set aside FinCEN's rule on residential real estate transfers.
• 2 September 2026. FinCEN reissued its border cash order for MSBs in eight counties.

A geographic targeting order (GTO) is a FinCEN order under 31 U.S.C. 5326 that puts extra recordkeeping and reporting duties on the businesses of one area, for 180 days at a time unless renewed. For the businesses it names, an order changes what AML transaction monitoring has to catch and report, so the work is matching its terms to the right locations, addresses and report fields.

Which geographic targeting orders are in effect in 2026?

Table 1. The two GTOs in effect, duty by duty (as of 2 November 2026)

The two orders key on different addresses. The border order follows where the MSB and its agents are located; the customer's home address plays no part. Minnesota is the reverse, because the address the sender gives decides, so one Minneapolis branch can hold covered and uncovered transfers side by side. Their triggers differ as well: the border line counts physical cash only, while a Minnesota money transmitter reports wires, ledger entries and virtual currency transmissions alike.

Three types of GTO have run in recent years: cash orders for MSBs, transfer orders for banks and money transmitters, and real estate orders for title insurers. Only the first two are live. The third border order ran out on 2 September 2026, a day before the fourth took effect, and the first Minnesota order on 10 August 2026.

What changed for GTOs in 2026?

• 12 February. The first Minnesota order took effect.
• 19 February and 19 March. Two federal courts split on the real estate rule: Florida upheld it, Texas vacated it.
• 28 February. The residential real estate GTOs expired without renewal.
• 10 March. FinCEN published the third border order, in force from 7 March, which kept the $1,000 line and added counties in Arizona and New Mexico.
• 13 July. The Ninth Circuit affirmed an injunction that blocks the first border order in the Southern District of California.
• 11 August. The renewed Minnesota order took effect, running to 6 February 2027.
• 3 September. The fourth border order took effect in eight counties; the Arizona counties and the California ZIP codes of earlier versions dropped out.

Who does the southwest border GTO affect, and what must a covered MSB do?

Any money services business located in one of the 304 listed ZIP codes is covered, whatever MSB service it offers (91 FR 56776, II.A.1), such as check cashers, currency dealers, money order sellers, prepaid access providers and money transmitters. Under the Southwest Border GTO a covered MSB must:

1. Report cash of $1,000 to $10,000 on a currency transaction report. Cash above $10,000 still goes on an ordinary CTR.
2. File within 30 days. Ordinary CTRs are due in 15, and FinCEN says to ignore the system's under $10,000 warning.
3. Verify identity before the transaction is concluded. Section 1010.312 applies, the ID number goes on the report, and a bare note of "known customer" is prohibited.
4. Enter "MSB0926GTO" in Field 45 of Part IV. It marks a report filed under this order.
5. Send the order to every agent in the area and to the CEO. Compliance by staff and agents is the MSB's responsibility (II.G).
6. Keep records five years from the order's last day. A renewal moves that day.
7. Watch for evasion below $1,000. FinCEN asks for voluntary SARs where customers split cash with the intent of staying under the line; the SAR threshold stays at $2,000 (border GTO FAQs, FAQ 3).

Picture a check casher in 79936, El Paso, with an agent in 88001, Dona Ana County, New Mexico (illustrative). Cashing a $1,450 payroll check means an ID check first, then a GTO report. A $1,010 check that pays out $990 after the fee needs no report, because FinCEN counts the cash that changes hands (FAQ 15). The agent in 88001 is a covered MSB too and must get the order from its principal.

Which businesses in a covered ZIP code are not covered?

A covered address alone does not make a report due. Sales of goods stay out (FAQ 10), as do transactions with a commercial bank (II.B.8) and refunds of cash funded transfers (FAQ 16). A post office counts as an MSB in the order's meaning (FAQ 4), so USPS counters in a listed ZIP code stand under it, but cash paid solely for postage or philatelic products is carved out of those BSA compliance responsibilities (II.B.5). MSBs that the government is enjoined from covering under the March 2025 order are exempt while those injunctions last (footnote 7). Being covered does not mean being investigated (FAQ 22).

Who does the Minnesota GTO affect, and what must banks and money transmitters report?

Banks and money transmitters that have a branch, subsidiary or office in Hennepin County or Ramsey County are covered (91 FR 51588, II.A.1). FinCEN issued the order against the laundering abroad of money taken through Minnesota government benefits fraud. For each transfer:

1. Key on the sender's address. The transfer is covered when the sender gives an address in either county; the order sets no condition on which branch accepts it.
2. Take the $3,000 line from the recordkeeping rule. Sections 1020.410(a) and 1010.410(e) of 31 CFR already require transfer records at that amount (Minnesota GTO FAQs, FAQ 3).
3. Check the destination and the sender. The recipient or its institution is outside the United States, and the sender is not a publicly traded company, an AML regulated institution or, for banks, one of the categories exempted on 27 February 2026 (FAQ 19).
4. Collect the extra fields. The recipient's date of birth, phone and email; any government contract or benefit money; for money transmitters, the form of transmittal and whether cash couriers settle a hawala ledger entry.
5. File the CSV by the end of the next month. Partial reports do not count (FAQ 11), and with data missing the business "may consider declining" the transfer (FAQ 10).
6. Flag suspicion on its own track. If you file a SAR on a covered transfer, FinCEN asks for "Minnesota Fraud GTO" in Field 2 and in the narrative (FAQ 7).

Take a Minneapolis money transmitter (illustrative). On 14 October 2026 a customer with a Hennepin County address sends $3,200 abroad, $1,500 of it from a state benefit. The transfer is covered, the government money answer is yes even for a part (FAQ 9), and October's CSV is due by 30 November 2026. With a Wisconsin address, the same customer falls outside the order.

What are the reporting obligations and compliance steps, from notice to record retention?

Table 2. GTO compliance steps, from notice to record retention

Step 2 turns on the address field. A rule that keys the border line on the customer's address, or the Minnesota line on the branch's ZIP code, misses covered transactions and reports uncovered ones, because the location of the MSB and its agents decides one order and the sender's stated address the other.

The end date in step 7 needs an owner. Each order runs to a fixed day and FinCEN has renewed both with changes, so the date sits in the rule set and a named person reads the Federal Register before it comes. A renewal also moves the retention clock: records are kept five years from the last day an order is effective.

complead, formerly Sanction Scanner, keeps every detection rule in its transaction monitoring software under version control, and each change carries a record of who made it, when and why. When a GTO line goes on at the start of an order and off at its end, that record shows the date and the person behind each switch. The BSA officer still makes the call.

What happened to the residential real estate GTOs and the RRE rule?

FinCEN's real estate orders began on 13 January 2016, when it took aim at real estate secrecy in Manhattan and Miami: title insurance companies had to identify the people behind companies paying cash for high end homes.

The last version, dated 9 October 2025, covered purchases by a legal entity without a bank loan at $300,000 or more ($50,000 in Baltimore). It required a CTR within 30 days of the closing that named each beneficial owner holding 25 percent or more, under the code REGTO1025, and it ran to 28 February 2026.

A national rule was to take over. The Residential Real Estate Transfers rule (89 FR 70258, 29 August 2024) was set to apply from 1 December 2025, but an exemptive relief order freed reporting persons "from all requirements of that Rule until March 1, 2026".

Then two courts split. On 19 February 2026 the Middle District of Florida adopted the finding that the rule is "statutorily authorized, not arbitrary and capricious, and not violative of the Fourth or First Amendments" and entered judgment for the government. On 19 March 2026 the Eastern District of Texas held that "Neither provision of the Act cited by FinCEN authorizes the Final Rule" and set the rule aside for everyone. So the real estate GTOs never became permanent and nationwide, because the rule meant to do that stays vacated while the appeal runs.

One illustrative purchase shows the change. An LLC pays $400,000 for a house in Webb County, Texas, with no loan. Closed in January 2026, the purchase meant a GTO report from a covered title insurer, due within 30 days of the closing. Closed in April 2026, it needs no report at all.

Do title companies have to file Real Estate Reports now?

No. FinCEN's RRE page says that while the court's order remains in force, reporting persons "are not required to file Real Estate Reports with FinCEN and are not subject to liability if they fail to do so".

The Fifth Circuit appeal, filed on 11 May 2026, asks whether the Act authorizes the rule and whether relief should have been limited to the parties. The government's reply brief is due on 20 November 2026. The Florida judgment has been on appeal in the Eleventh Circuit since 20 April 2026.

What have the courts decided about the southwest border orders?

Novedades y Servicios, a money services business that sued in the Southern District of California, alleged that CTRs on cash above $200 under the March 2025 order would take between "14.8 and 17.26 hours per day" to file, at around 25 minutes per report. On 13 July 2026 the Ninth Circuit affirmed the preliminary injunction against that order.

The majority held that the Border GTO "is likely a rule and not an order under the APA", so it needed notice and comment, and that it was likely arbitrary and capricious because FinCEN "failed to take into account the cost of compliance" for the businesses it covered. Judge Lee dissented. The dissent found that the plaintiffs had not shown irreparable harm.

The reach is narrow. The injunction covers the Southern District of California only, and the government told the court that only the March 2025 order was before it on appeal, not the third order. Footnote 7 of the current order points to other injunctions: certain Texas MSBs that the government is enjoined from covering under the March 2025 order stay exempt until those injunctions are lifted. Neither the order nor FinCEN's release says why the Arizona counties and California ZIP codes are no longer listed.

How is a GTO enforced when a business does not comply?

What happens when a covered business ignores an order is on record in FinCEN's case against A&S World Trading. A&S ran Fine Fragrance, a perfume store inside the Los Angeles Fashion District GTO, which required reports on cash above $3,000. The consent order records that A&S received the order by certified mail on 15 October 2014, then processed $4,646,211 of sales in which it took currency. It filed none of the reports. An IRS examination identified 114 unreported transactions over $3,000, which FinCEN puts at about $2,330,000 in all. FinCEN assessed a $275,000 penalty on 31 March 2022.

The consent order cites the statute's base amounts, $25,000 and $100,000. FinCEN's FAQs now give the inflation adjusted figures: each willful violation can cost $71,545 or, if larger, the amount involved, capped at $286,184 (31 U.S.C. 5321), and the criminal side reaches a $250,000 fine and five years in prison, together or alone (31 U.S.C. 5322). Both current orders extend that exposure to officers, directors, employees and agents.

Before 6 February and 1 March 2027, the BSA officer has to choose what each GTO rule does if FinCEN lets its order lapse. Switching the lines off leaves only the ordinary duties, the CTR on cash above $10,000 and the transfer records at $3,000. Keeping them as thresholds keeps the data but raises alerts that feed no report. Write the choice into each rule now. For title work, check the Fifth Circuit docket after the government's reply of 20 November 2026.

Sources and review. Read on 2 November 2026 and again on 3 November 2026: both current orders as published in the Federal Register, with the first Minnesota order and the third border order, FinCEN's FAQs for each current order, FinCEN's releases of 13 January 2016, 1 April 2022, 7 August 2026 and 2 September 2026, the 9 October 2025 real estate order, the exemptive relief order and FinCEN's RRE page, the Florida and Texas judgments, the Fifth Circuit docket and the government's brief, the Ninth Circuit opinion, the A&S World Trading consent order, and 31 U.S.C. 5321 and 5322. Fact checked by Ufuk Gürdaş, Compliance Specialist; reviewed on 6 November 2026.