3.121- What are the Facts about Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ?

The Suspicious Activity Report(SARS) is a report that draws attention to particular consumer activity that is deemed suspicious thus hints at money laundering or assisting terrorists monetarily. It informs the bodies responsible for law enforcement. Providing law enforcement agencies with this particular report enlightens them and further assists in the process of sending potential criminals to prison. Now taking into account the Acts mentioned in our FAQ, we must recognize that financial institutions assume an obligation under the Bank Secrecy Act(BSA) to facilitate U.S government agencies in discerning and be instrumental in the deterrence of heinous crime like money laundering and take on other tasks such as reporting suspicious activity, submit reports of monetary transactions that are above 10,000 dollars etc. To boot, the SARS is in fact a device that is at one’s disposal due to the BSA of 1970 itself. Ultimately in 1996 the SARS became renowned and was hence regarded as the norm for filing reports concerning suspicious activity. The United State’s money- laundering statutes consist of SARS and this has become more rigid overtime. The stipulations set forth by the preceding anti- money laundering statutes were radically enlarged and embellished upon due to the enactment of the Anti- Money Laundering Act(2020).