Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) – Trends and Updates

Date Recorded: May 2, 2025
Presenter: Mark W. Dever, AAP, CAMS, Director, Forvis Mazars, LLP

The year 2024 was another breaking year for SAR filings as financial institutions filed more than 2.037 million SARs, and all seven filing groups filed 3.801 million SARs (+ 3.78% and -0.21% respectively). This two-hour webinar will review the most important document in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reporting, the Suspicious Activity Report, as well as update members of the compliance, training, and audit staffs on the most important aspect of BSA/AML compliance, the detecting and reporting of suspicious activities. Law enforcement continues to rely upon and utilize SAR filings to thwart money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Recent federal guidance will continue to modify and enhance the SAR “process” within all depository financial institutions.

Here’s What You Will Learn:

• SAR (Form 111, v 1.2) – updated February 2025
• Discuss identifying suspicious transactions
• Review 2024 SAR reporting – numbers of filings increased significantly
• Highlight proper SAR form completion and submissions
• Emphasize the importance of the “SAR Narrative” and the “SNFs”
• Examine the latest SAR rulings, advisories, and “guidance” from the agencies
• Review the criticality of SAR confidentiality
• Discuss the SAR “element” in “Customer Due Diligence (CDD)
• Allow time for questions from participants

Recent well-publicized BSA enforcement actions, fines, and deferred prosecution agreements continue to support a climate proving AML/CFT/BSA compliance remains of paramount importance to all financial institutions. This two-hour webinar from ProBank Education Services will not only provide the retail, compliance, and audit staffs with a current update on Suspicious Activity Reporting but will also discuss other regulatory and legal issues related to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing activities. It will also complement existing internal education sessions to help meet the annual BSA/AML training requirements for retail, compliance, and internal audit personnel.