It's a message that has been hammered home repeatedly by the U.S. Treasury Department: the confidentiality of data included in suspicious activity reports is sacrosanct.
Financial institutions must keep a tight lid on investigations of suspicious account activity, even when transactional alerts don't merit federal regulatory reporting, the U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday.
A judges decision Tuesday to allow discussion of alleged suspicious activity at a Miami bank is likely to draw the attention of financial regulators, according to current and former examiners.
Nearly 60 percent of the suspicious activity reports filed in fiscal 2006 had missing, incorrect or incomplete data in fields critical to law enforcement agencies, according to a federal watchdog report.
Poorly thought out responses to law enforcement requests for additional information on suspicious activity can end up exposing banks to civil lawsuits or regulatory actions, according to compliance professionals.
A Colombian national is seeking $15,000 in a lawsuit against a Spanish bank for allegedly filing an unwarranted suspicious activity report on him in an effort to justify dropping his account.
An Arkansas state appellate court ruling has bankers worried that the heretofore impregnable U.S. Bank Secrecy Act "safe harbor" protection they receive for filing suspicious activity reports may not be airtight.
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