SAR-STR Filing | The Perfect Merchant

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 20th recommendation encourages financial institutions to quickly file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) as part of transaction monitoring obligations.

As outlined in Recommendation IX, any delays in SAR and STR filings may put the enterprise, or even the state, at risk of violating anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT) standards. Thus, all untoward transactional incidents must be reported without delay - irrespective of size - to prevent potential cases of money laundering and terrorist financing.

SAR Automation| SAR File Manager

Looking to streamline regulatory investigations and reporting? Today's financial and obligated industries opt for advanced AML-CFT solutions with automated Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) creation and filing, tailored case management, and regulatory reporting with direct SAR e-filing capabilities.

With a SAR file manager tool in place, it becomes easy to:

Create, complete, and file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)

Uncover suspicious activities and generate SARs with just one click

Autofill the data fields and properly submit them to authorities overnight via e-filing

Create investigative cases directly from alerts while benefiting from integrated case management functionality

Reduce investigations and SAR filing time by up to 80%

Nowadays, automated SAR engines are no-code platforms with customized workflows. One consolidated dashboard view allows businesses to manage data across numerous investigations easily. A sophisticated SAR manager includes workflows that provide status updates on submitted SARs from incomplete to accepted by FinCEN and other regulatory authorities.

SAR-STR Red-Flag Alerts

Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) solutions provide a comprehensive way for financial institutions to monitor and manage customer risk. The SAR-STR solutions exploit automated form-filling processes, e-filing mechanisms, and global coverage to make filing STRs easier and quicker than ever before.

To be able to keep track of suspicious activities quickly and easily, it is recommended that reports are filed approximately every 90 days in order to keep authorities informed of any potential illegal activity so that appropriate action can be taken.

Major SAR-STR red-flag alerts are:

Payment transactions exceeding predetermined thresholds

A sudden surge in money movement

Behaviour patterns that do not align with customer profile or prior data collected

SARs also take into account transactions made with people, businesses, and countries listed on sanctions lists maintained by OFAC, HMRC, the UN, the EU, and other agencies. Additionally, companies should be aware of business deals involving high-risk countries and Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) who are often targets of money laundering and corruption due to their influential positions.

SAR Filings to the FIUs

SAR automation delivers increased efficiency and productivity gains to the financial and fintech organization. It enables 70% faster investigations and has a single-entity view, so the right information is at investigators' fingertips. The risk team can leverage Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capabilities to eliminate manual searches for third-party data, standardize AML processes and adhere to regulations for automated, cost-efficient compliance.

A well-organized SAR platform:

Validates the SAR requirements based on FATF and state FIU directives

Electronically submits prepared SARs with ease

Gives quality assurance and process efficiency by automatically handling the tedious aspects of SAR filing for AML-obligated businesses

Sends alerts to the compliance team for any submission issues

Auto-reflects the status of multiple submissions to different FIUs

Auto-receives notifications if there are any issues - all with a single click!

Also, SAR-worthy alerts are given greater priority by empowering investigators to focus on them. Automated investigation processes support FIU forms with auto-populating content and e-filing of SARs, Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs), and other forms, enhancing the accuracy and speed of investigations.

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Intelligent SAR Filing Automation for Anti-Money Laundering Compliance