Speaker 1: If you are looking for a video to help you with guidance for SAR related processes, including when, why and how SARs should be submitted, this is the right video for you. From this video you will get guidance on SAR aspects based on my own review of the Introduction to Suspicious Activity Report, which is a publication released in September 2021 by the UK FIU and the NCA. But before we dive into it, if you are finding valuable this video, make sure you subscribe to Film Crime Agent and press the thumb up on this video. This will make it super easy for you to consume new videos that are going live weekly on my channel and it will allow me to create more content for you. Now with the housekeeping done, let's jump right into today's video. Hi and welcome to Film Crime Agent, this is my YouTube channel where every week I publish a new video to boost your awareness about anti-money laundering and financial crime prevention. As mentioned in the intro, today I'll share with you a detailed guidance for SAR related processes, so let's start immediately with the basics. I'd like to specify now that the legislation and the agency references that I will talk in this video are specifically related to the UK jurisdiction. So if you are outside of the UK, you probably want to double check if those regulations are also applicable to your country and find which is possibly the crime agency that will be dealing with suspicious activity report in your country. What is a suspicious activity report? A SAR is a suspicious activity report, a piece of information which alerts law enforcement that certain client or customer activity is in some way suspicious and might indicate money laundering or terrorist financing. It is important to understand that SARs are not general crime reports. The submission of a SAR is purely created for reporting to the NCA in the UK suspicion or knowledge of money laundering and terrorist financing activities. If you wish to report a crime different than this one, you should instead contact either your local police on 101 or for any fraud reports do get in touch with action fraud. So why regulated firms must submit suspicious activity reports? Regulated financial institutions as well as other financial services related firms operating within the UK jurisdictions are required to file SARs to the NCA. This is a legal requirement in order to be in compliance with the proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Terrorism Act 2000. Law enforcement receive crucial information about suspected criminal activities when a SAR is filed to the crime agency. Besides being a legal requirement, the submission of a SAR also safeguards you as an individual, your company and UK financial institutions from risks that are associated with money laundering and the financing of terrorism. What is the trigger telling you when to submit a SAR? According to the Law Society portal, there are two scenarios that indicate when a company money laundering reporting officer must submit a SAR. If your firm operates within the regulated sector, you must make a SAR if you know or suspect or have reasonable grounds for knowing or suspecting that a person is engaged in money laundering. If your firm does not operate within the regulated sector, you must make a SAR if you know or suspect that money laundering is taking place. The definition and full understanding of the word suspicion is a key element here to ensure that SARs are properly identified. In the Da Silva Court case, commonly used as a legal reference for the understanding of what is suspicious in AML terms, it was indicated that a vague feeling of unease would not be enough, would not suffice. A reportable suspicious activity therefore exists when you think there is a possibility which is more than fanciful that the relevant facts exist. I know that this point on when to submit a SAR may not be particularly easy to digest, so especially if you are new to the AML industry, I advise you to familiarize more with the Law Society reference information available from the description of this video right below. But I still hope anyway that my guidance on SAR identification that I just covered has already helped you clarify a bit more about this aspect. With this video I'm sharing my high-level guidance for SAR-related topics, hoping to help anyone seeking to familiarize more with this topic. However, I am well aware about the debate on the effectiveness around the current approach on SARs and I would really welcome your view on the use of suspicious activity reports. Do you think SARs are still the best way to inform your local agency? Should a reform of the system take place anytime soon? Let me know your view in the video comments down below to continue this debate with other viewers that are watching my video. So are SARs required by firms not operating in the regulated sector? In short, yes, even if you are not a regulated firm, it is still a legal requirement according to section 337 or 338 of the Proceeds of Crime Act that you do submit a SAR every time you are in suspicion or you actually know of money laundering activities taking place. It's also worth noting that assisting others in dealing with money laundering or failing to submit a SAR can be seen as an offense. When an organization is not filing a SAR that should be submitted due to the reasons we just indicated before, this is also known as a failure to disclose. Therefore, even if you are not operating in the regulated sector, you should always be in the position to justify your reasonable excuses. This is in case you are found in the position to possibly know or suspect of money laundering or any criminal property linked to your customers. Can I inform my client about the SAR? Releasing information to your client or customer that might influence the outcome of an inquiry is called tipping off and is considered an offense under section 333A of the Proceeds of Crime Act or section 21D of the Terrorism Act. After you submit your SAR, keep in mind that you are not allowed to make any disclosure to your clients, hence it's important to think about how you'll handle your communications with the reported subject well ahead and include those as part of your EML policies and procedures. And lastly, how to submit a SAR in the UK? SARs in the UK must be submitted to the NCA using the SAR online portal which, upon completion of the SAR submission process, will provide you with a SAR reference number. In order for individuals or organizations to submit a SAR on the NCA online portal, a registration on the portal will be required and, of course, all the steps are indicated in the landing page of this portal. As always, check the description of this video to find the link and be directed to the SAR online portal where you will find all the guidance required for your registration. So with that, I'm at the end of today's video. As I mentioned earlier, let me know in the comments of this video your view about the current SAR system. I really would like to know what you think about that. If this video was useful to you, you can show your appreciation and support my channel by subscribing to Film Crime Agent and press the thumb up on this video. Also remember to check the description where you will find useful links including how to become part of our community on patreon.com. And lastly, thank you for watching. I hope you have enjoyed my video and, until next time, see you soon.