Too illegit to quit: Dealing with ongoing suspicious behavior

The NAFCU Compliance team sometimes hears from credit unions that are dealing with a particularly vexing situation – a member that will not stop engaging in suspicious activity. Here are some things for credit unions to consider when faced with this issue:

First, there may be Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filing obligations. Section 1020.320 of the FinCEN regulations discusses SAR reporting requirements and requires a credit union to file a SAR within 30 calendar days of detecting suspicious activity. As we’ve blogged about previously, FinCEN has provided regulatory relief to credit unions and other financial institutions by allowing them to file “continuing activity SARs” instead of constantly requiring brand new SARs for the same suspect or activity. Question #16 of this FinCEN Frequently Asked Questions document discusses the timeline for continuing activity SARs, which encompass each 90 day period following the date of the original SAR. The continuing activity SAR is due within 30 days of the end of the 90-day period, thus the first continuing activity SAR would be due no later than 120 days after the date of the original SAR, though FinCEN has stated that credit unions may file continuing activity SARs sooner if they “believe the activity warrants earlier review by law enforcement.”

 

 

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