Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Suspicious Activity Reports and Other Anti-Money Laundering Situations
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), jointly with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the Federal banking agencies), and in consultation with the staff of certain other federal functional regulators, is issuing answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding suspicious activity reports (SARs) and other anti-money laundering (AML) considerations for financial institutions covered by SAR rules. The answers to these FAQs clarify the regulatory requirements related to SARs to assist such financial institutions with their compliance obligations, while enabling financial institutions to focus resources on activities that produce the greatest value to law enforcement agencies and other government users of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reporting.
The answers to these FAQs neither alter existing BSA/AML legal or regulatory requirements, nor establish new supervisory expectations; they were developed in response to recent Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG) recommendations, as described in more detail in FinCEN’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) on Anti-Money Laundering Program Effectiveness, published in September 2020.