The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and other federal agencies have developed new rules on suspicious activity report (SAR) confidentiality.
FinCEN, an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department, and federal bank and thrift regulatory agencies, today published a final rule stating that financial institutions must not reveal SARs even when they receive subpoenas.
Congress created the SAR system encourage financial institutions to identify and report activities that might be related to money laundering, international narcotics trafficking or financing of terrorism.