Issue 20 – October 2011
The SAR Activity Review – Trends, Tips & Issues is a product of continual dialogue and collaboration among the nation’s financial institutions, law enforcement officials and regulatory agencies to provide meaningful information about the preparation, use and value of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and other Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports filed by financial institutions.This issue of The SAR Activity Review covers a wide range of topics. The Trends & Analysis section features articles by two of FinCEN’s multi-disciplinary working groups: SAR filings related to international prepaid cards, and the risks associated with the growth in Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) services. FinCEN’s Office of Regulatory Analysis shares findings of their assessment of SAR filings prior to and following FinCEN’s Advisory on Informal Value Transfer Systems (IVTS) in September, 2010. Also, FinCEN’s Office of Outreach Resources provides an update on SAR-related inquiries to our Regulatory Helpline.As always, the Law Enforcement Cases section includes cases summaries that demonstrate the importance and value of BSA data to the law enforcement community. Cases in this section highlight how the use of BSA data, particularly SARs, and the detection and analysis of suspicious transactions by financial institutions proved to be of value to law enforcement and prosecutors.In Issues & Guidance, we present articles from the United States Trustees Program on their efforts in combating bankruptcy-related mortgage fraud and mortgage rescue schemes and from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on organized retail crime. We also include several articles from FinCEN staff focusing on a variety of topics of interest for financial institutions: health care fraud and associated red flags; SAR confidentiality; distinguishing between BSA SARs and other suspicious activity reporting initiatives; and, E-filing information for filers of the Registration of Money Services Business form (FinCEN Form 107). We also include in this section an update to FinCEN’s February, 2011 Advisory on Elder Financial Exploitation.
Detailed report link: here
