Suspicious Activity Report SAR Internal Template and AML Risk Assessment | Bribery and Corruption | Mortgage Conduct of Business MCOB | Template for FCA Applications and Authorised Firms

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Suspicious Activity Reporting

A suspicious activity report (SAR) is a report made by a financial institution about suspicious or potentially suspicious activity with regards to money laundering, bribery, financial crime and or terrorist activity. Section IV of the FATF 9 Special Recommendations advises “If financial institutions, or other businesses or entities subject to anti-money laundering obligations, suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are linked or related to, or are to be used for terrorism, terrorist acts or by terrorist organisations, they should be required to report promptly their suspicions to the competent authorities.”

In the UK, firm are required by law to report any suspicious activities to the NCA as well as keeping internal records of all such suspicions and transactions. Submitting a SAR provides law enforcement with valuable information on potential criminality and also protects the reporting firm from the risk of laundering the proceeds of crime. It is mandatory under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) to submit a SAR as soon as a firm or person ‘knows’ or ‘suspects’ that a person or legal entity is engaged in money laundering or dealing in criminal property.

9.5.1 Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) – Internal Template

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 [We have included a template for this document in 10_Due_Diligence_AML]

9.6 AML Risk Assessment

The FCA and HMRC require that businesses with money laundering obligations carry out company-wide risk assessments to assess all business areas and activities for risks and vulnerabilities associated with money laundering and terrorist financing. The Company use our own risk assessment template to assess each area and to create a project plan for mitigating actions and the management of such risks.

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 [We have included a template for this document in 10_Due_Diligence_AML]

9.7 Bribery & Corruption

9.7.1 Introduction

The Bribery Act 2010 modernised the law on bribery and came into force on 1 July 2011. The Act is concerned with bribery only, which is typically defined as giving someone a financial or other advantage to encourage them to perform their functions or activities improperly, in a biased manner or to reward that person for having already done so. The Act is not concerned with: –

• Fraud
• Theft
• Books and Record Offences
• Companies Act Offences
• Money Laundering Offences
• Competition Law

An organisation could be liable if a very senior person in the organisation commits a bribery offence. This person’s activities would then be attributed to the organisation. An organisation could also be liable where an employee, agent or other person acting as a service provider for the company, pays a bribe specifically to get business, keep business, or gain a business advantage for the organisation.