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

Session One: STRs/SARs

• What are Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs)?
• The difference between unusual and suspicious
• Responsibilities in the collection and processing of data
• Worked examples, data, and how to prioritise them
• Timing (when should a report be issued?)

By the end of this opening suspicious activity reporting training session, delegates will be able to identify the different types of reports, who issues them, when they should 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

Review & Summary

• Q&A

An expert with a unique blend of experience delivers this course by Redcliffe. His expertise is in Banking, Investment Banking, Asset Management and experience in the sports industry. The quality of his training courses and his recent experience within the financial services and professional services industries create a complementary skillset in this area.

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 had 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. Then a year in Moscow setting up the L&D Department (coupled with Graduate Recruitment) for Russia’s largest Investment Bank.

Our Suspicious Activity Training specialist then moved to the Gulf, where he 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, our specialist has acted as an independent consultant and financial trainer 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 will help you with the following learning outcomes:

• Prioritise data from different departments of a business
• Determine if you should send a report
• 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
• Managing 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. This covers law enforcement and your own needs for internal reports.
• 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 training covers the practical application of learning in group exercises. We embed knowledge and best practices for reporting, as well as examining how technology is impacting this area of the FCC

This course covers the recent developments in suspicious activity/suspicious transaction reporting. It is a 'must-know' for the following:

• 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 regulations and reporting requirements, and key developments in this area
• Senior managers in banks, institutions and organisations wishing to understand how effective SARs/STRs will benefit their organisations, in both regulatory and FCC terms
• 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
• Any member of an obliged entity or nominated officer seeking to update their knowledge and gain clarity on how and when to file a report.

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 suspicion or knowledge crossover, 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, half-day course covers best practices in writing, collating data for and sending SARs/STRs, as well as post-reporting issues. Taught by a globally recognised leading trainer, take a look at the following course details to see what your staff will master in this training:

• How to prioritise data from different departments of a business
• How to decide whether you should send a report
• 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.