Suspicious Activity Report [Banking] Law and Legal Definition
When used in the context of banking, a suspicious activity report is a report regarding suspicious or potentially suspicious activity related to money laundering or other financial crimes, filed with U.S. Department of treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. It is often abbreviated as SAR.
SARs are one of the government’s main weapons in the battle against money laundering and other financial crimes because these reports generate leads that law enforcement agencies use to initiate money laundering investigations. Many individuals launder money to conceal illegal activity, such as drug trafficking, health insurance fraud, tax evasion, and even terrorism. It fuels criminal conduct, allowing drug dealers, smugglers, terrorists, arms dealers, and tax evaders to maintain control over their proceeds and ultimately to provide a legitimate cover for their sources of income.
SARs help banks and financial institutions in protecting themselves and their reputation from the criminals and help law enforcement to track down and arrest those criminals.
The following is an example of the pertinent provision of a federal regulation on the Suspicious Activity Report:
12 CFR 21.11 Suspicious Activity Report.
(a) Purpose and scope. This section ensures that national banks file a Suspicious Activity Report when they detect a known or suspected violation of Federal law or a suspicious transaction related to a money laundering activity or a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. This section applies to all national banks as well as any Federal branches and agencies of foreign banks licensed or chartered by the OCC.
(c) SARs required. A national bank shall file a SAR with the appropriate Federal law enforcement agencies and the Department of the Treasury on the form prescribed by the OCC and in accordance with the form's instructions. The bank shall send the completed SAR to FinCEN in the following circumstances:
(1) Insider abuse involving any amount. Whenever the national bank detects any known or suspected Federal criminal violation, or pattern of criminal violations, committed or attempted against the bank or involving a transaction or transactions conducted through the bank, where the bank believes that it was either an actual or potential victim of a criminal violation, or series of criminal violations, or that the bank was used to facilitate a criminal transaction, and the bank has a substantial basis for identifying one of its directors, officers, employees, agents or other institution-affiliated parties as having committed or aided in the commission of a criminal act, regardless of the amount involved in the violation.
(2) Violations aggregating $ 5,000 or more where a suspect can be identified. Whenever the national bank detects any known or suspected Federal criminal violation, or pattern of criminal violations, committed or attempted against the bank or involving a transaction or transactions conducted through the bank and involving or aggregating $ 5,000 or more in funds or other assets where the bank believes that it was either an actual or potential victim of a criminal violation, or series of criminal violations or that it was used to facilitate a criminal transaction, and the bank has a substantial basis for identifying a possible suspect or group of suspects. If it is determined prior to filing this report that the identified suspect or group of suspects has used an alias, then information regarding the true identity of the suspect or group of suspects, as well as alias identifiers, such as drivers' license or social security numbers, addresses and telephone numbers, must be reported.
(3) Violations aggregating $ 25,000 or more regardless of potential suspects. Whenever the national bank detects any known or suspected Federal criminal violation, or pattern of criminal violations, committed or attempted against the bank or involving a transaction or transactions conducted through the bank and involving or aggregating $ 25,000 or more in funds or other assets where the bank believes that it was either an actual or potential victim of a criminal violation, or series of criminal violations, or that the bank was used to facilitate a criminal transaction, even though there is no substantial basis for identifying a possible suspect or group of suspects.
(4) Transactions aggregating $ 5,000 or more that involve potential money laundering or violate the Bank Secrecy Act. Any transaction (which for purposes of this paragraph (c)(4) means a deposit, withdrawal, transfer between accounts, exchange of currency, loan, extension of credit, or purchase or sale of any stock, bond, certificate of deposit, or other monetary instrument or investment security, or any other payment, transfer, or delivery by, through, or to a financial institution, by whatever means effected) conducted or attempted by, at or through the national bank and involving or aggregating $ 5,000 or more in funds or other assets, if the bank knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that:
(i) The transaction involves funds derived from illegal activities or is intended or conducted in order to hide or disguise funds or assets derived from illegal activities (including, without limitation, the ownership, nature, source, location, or control of such funds or assets) as part of a plan to violate or evade any law or regulation or to avoid any transaction reporting requirement under Federal law;
(ii) The transaction is designed to evade any regulations promulgated under the Bank Secrecy Act; or
(iii) The transaction has no business or apparent lawful purpose or is not the sort in which the particular customer would normally be expected to engage, and the institution knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction.
Legal Definition list
- Suspicious Activity Report [Banking]
- Suspension of Sentence
- Suspension of Deportation
- Suspension Of Child Support Payments
- Suspension of an employee
- Suspicious Character
- Suspicious Transaction (Gaming Law)
- Suspicious-Activity Report [SAR]
- Suspicious-Transaction Report
- Susquehanna River Basin Commission
- Sustain
Related Legal Terms
- Abnormally Dangerous Activity
- Abstraction [Banking]
- Accommodation Maker(Banking)
- Account [Banks & Banking]
- Acting in Concert [Banks & Banking]
- Activity Drivers
- Activity of Multinational Enterprises
- Activity-Based Costing
- Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)
- Advance Gambling Activity
