Effective Suspicious Activity & Transaction Reports - The 5 'W's

Session One: STRs/SARs

• What are SARs and STRs?
• The difference between unusual and suspicious
• Responsibilities in the collection and processing of data
• Worked examples data and how to prioritise it
• Timing; when should a report be issued?

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to identify the different types of reports, who issues them, when should they be issued and why clear, effective data collection is so important in the process

Session Two: What Makes a Good SAR/STR?

• How to write effective reports; the process
• The importance of clear, concise language
• Making the reports logical and readable
• Things to avoid in reports
• Examining your reports from the reader's point of view
• Worked examples of good and bad SARs/STRs
• The problems with defensive reports
• Post-reporting issues; what not to do
• Ensuring your policies & procedures are effective pre-and-post reporting

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to chart the reporting process and identify the key information needed to ensure that each report is necessary, accurate and meets the needs of law enforcement & regulators

Suspicious Activity Report Training Review & Summary

• Q&A

Redcliffe’s Effective Suspicious Activity Training is delivered by an expert with a unique blend of experience in Banking, Investment Banking, Asset Management and experience in the sports industry. His expertise is valued worldwide for the quality of his training courses which are complimented by his recent experience within the financial services and professional services industries.

He read History at Cambridge and then trained as a stockbroker in London before working with Dutch, Canadian and US investment banks in their sales, sales trading and trading departments. For three years he was given compliance oversight for a regulated investment bank based in Edinburgh.

He spent three years in India managing the Learning & Knowledge Transfer section of a large investment banking offshoring project and then a year in Moscow, setting up the L&D Department (coupled with Graduate Recruitment) for Russia’s largest Investment Bank.

The trainer then moved to the Gulf where he was hired to set up the L&D and Graduate Recruitment areas for one of the world’s largest Sovereign Wealth Funds as well as overseeing compliance training for the organisation. Following this, he was seconded to perform the same function at the World Cup organising Committee.

He has recently also been Chair of a small regulated lending institution in the UK.

Between these stints back inside businesses, he has acted as an independent consultant and financial trainer with a focus on Financial Crime Compliance for the past 30 years. He has received the highest feedback for making these topics understandable and relatable to the everyday activities of clients and delegates. His global experience ensures that he understands a wide variety of cultures, how they learn and how to make that learning effective for each.

The 5 ’W’s of Suspicious Transactions & Suspicious Activity Training helps participants to:

• Prioritise data from different departments of a business
• Decide whether a report needs to be sent
• Understand the importance of an audit trail
• Chart the needs of the global regulatory bodies and standards applicable in reporting and how they are changing
• Write effective SARs/STRs
• Effectively manage the post-report process and internal issues
• Work through examples of good and bad reporting

• Redcliffe's suspicious activity report training focuses on writing SARs/STRs from both sides: law enforcement as well as your own internal needs
• A thorough analysis of the ‘hot topics’ in reporting, including defensive reports and false positives
• Global learning perspective examining SARs/STRs from different regions and regulatory authorities
• This latest Suspicious Activity/Suspicious Activity training course covers the practical application of learnings in group exercises, embedding knowledge and best practices for reporting as well as examining how technology is impacting this area of FCC

This course covers the recent developments in suspicious activity/suspicious transaction reporting and is suitable for:

• Any member of an obliged entity wishing to update their knowledge and gain clarity on how and when to make a report
• Banking regulation and finance professionals who want to update their knowledge on SAR/STR issues, including the current hot topics (defensive filings, false positives), the latest regulation and reporting requirements, and key developments in this area
• Managers and risk professionals wishing to establish or strengthen their understanding of the differences between unusual and suspicious and the reporting frameworks within their organisations
• Senior managers in banks, institutions and organisations wishing to better understand how effective SARs/STRs will benefit their organisations, in both regulatory and FCC terms

Financial crime, AML and meeting their associated obligations are some of the biggest challenges facing the legal sector and its clients today. As the scrutiny and scale of fines handed out by regulators increases, all those working in this sector or providing services to it must understand how and when to report suspicious activity and how to structure those reports to the satisfaction of the law enforcement agencies and the regulators.

Our market-leading, ½ -day course covers best practices in writing, collating data for and sending SARs/STRs as well as post-reporting issues.

Taught by globally recognised leading trainers in this area, your staff will learn:

• How to prioritise data from different departments of a business
• How to decide whether a report needs to be sent
• The importance of an audit trail
• The global regulatory bodies & standards applicable to reporting and how they are changing
• How to write an effective SAR/STR
• The post-report process and internal issues

This Effective Suspicious Activity training is case-study-based and interactive, using recent examples of SARs/STRs to allow delegates to work through issues and create effective reporting structures.