2 About US SAR

US SAR stands for the United States Suspicious Activity Report. As a part of regulations and compliances, a Financial Services Organization has to perform appropriate analysis and report any suspicious activities that may lead to fraud and money laundering to the regulatory authorities. These regulatory bodies are responsible for safeguarding financial institutions and consumers from abuse, providing transparency in the country's financial system, enhancing that country's security, and deterring and detecting criminal activity in the financial system.

Financial institutions must provide data regarding suspicious activities to their geographic region's regulatory authority. This data is delivered to the regulatory bodies through regulatory reports. These reports, depending on the regulatory, and geographic region, can be delivered in a paper format or in an electronic format. In the US, these reports are submitted in XML format to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)