Banks, money services businesses and insurance firms are asking the U.S. Treasury Department to make broad changes to a plan that would revamp how suspicious activity is reported. Nineteen companies and associations wrote the department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to suggest amendments to its Oct. 15 proposal to create an XML-based, "dynamic" suspicious activity report (SAR) form. The proposal, which would complement a broader overhaul of the agency's Bank Secrecy Act database, is intended to streamline report filing. But rather than shortening the time anti-money laundering (AML) compliance officers spend filing SARs to as few as one hour per...
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