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VIENNA, Va. - The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued today the latest edition of theSAR Activity Review - By The Numbersthat introduces a number of visual enhancements aimed at providing financial institutions with more information on the geographical dispersion of the Suspicious Activity Report filings. The enhancements unveiled in Issue 8 include representations of the numerical depository institution SAR data for individual states; charts and graphs highlighting SAR filing trends and patterns between April 1, 1996 and December 31, 2006 for each state and territory; and maps for calendar year 2006.
In conjunction with the enhancements in this edition of theSAR Activity Review, FinCEN leveraged this information to recently provide Bank Secrecy Act Data Profiles to the 43 state supervisory agencies with which it has information sharing agreements. This initiative demonstrates FinCEN's continued commitment to provide valuable analytic products to important regulatory partners.
While SAR filings increased, this issue of theSAR Activity Reviewreveals that the rate of increase in suspicious activity reported by financial institutions that have more reporting experience, such as depository institutions, slowed between 2005 and 2006 compared to previous years. The rate of increase between 2004 and 2005 dropped from 37 percent to 9 percent in 2005-2006. By contrast, those components of the financial sector with less reporting experience, such as the securities and futures industries, showed, on average, higher rates of increased reporting, consistent with the industry's growing familiarity with Bank Secrecy Act obligations. For all industries, FinCEN will continue to provide guidance to assist them in meeting their responsibilities under the BSA. As of the end of 2006, depository institutions, money services businesses, casinos and card clubs, and the securities and futures industries have filed more than 4.2 million Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).
FinCEN issues The SAR Activity Review - By the Numbers twice a year, as a companion piece to The SAR Activity Review - Trends, Tips & Issues. By the Numbers is a compilation of numerical data gathered from SARs filed through the first six months of the year.