Reporting Suspicious Activity
Learn How to Report Suspicious Activity More Effectively
Dramatic shifts in customer behavior are making it harder to differentiate between legitimate activity and illegal transactions. So how do you spot and report suspicious activity to keep your business safe?
The ACAMS Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate will empower you to investigate and communicate suspicious activity in all forms. You’ll gain the knowledge and practical expertise you need file an effective counter-terrorist financing (CTF) or anti-money laundering (AML) suspicious activity report (SAR) – from understanding regulations, to collecting evidence and building a narrative.
Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate Course Content
The Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate course has been written by global subject matter experts, pulling examples from many countries and contexts. The course covers your regulatory duty to report, including FATF’s recommendation 20, requiring financial institutions to report suspicious transactions. It also covers US regulations and the EU directive on AML suspicious activity reporting.
The course is designed to give participants a practical understanding of the suspicious activity report process, with case examples that demonstrate how to build a CTF or AML SAR report. You’ll learn how to write a SAR narrative with your key audiences in mind, and how law enforcement investigators and regulators read SARs.
You’ll learn to
- Understand your obligations and the processes involved in reporting suspicious activity
- Clarify the purpose of SARs, who reviews them, and the circumstances that trigger filing
- Navigate data-sharing considerations and reporting requirements across jurisdictions
- Follow the steps required to file a SAR and manage an account once a report has been submitted
- Craft a clear and effective SAR narrative using recognised best practices
Key course topics
- Obligations and processes for reporting suspicious activity
- The purpose of SARs, who reviews them, and when they should be filed
- Navigating data sharing and cross-jurisdictional reporting requirements
- The steps involved in filing a SAR and managing an account once a report has been submitted
- Best practices for writing a clear and effective SAR narrative
Intended audience
Suspicious activity report training is relevant for professionals working in compliance roles, and specifically those responsible for investigating suspicious activity and filing SARs. This suspicious activity reporting certificate has been designed to be suitable for those with a basic level of financial crime prevention knowledge, as well as more experienced professionals. The intended audience for this certificate includes:
- Frontline compliance staff responsible for suspicious activity reporting
- Professionals looking for a refresher training course on SARs
- Those looking to progress to our CAMS-FCI qualification
Course structure
- Four-week online course
- Complete at your own pace
- Available on desktop or mobile (and most other devices)
- Pass a short final assessment to receive your Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate
- Results available immediately
Next steps
Our Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate is a great stepping stone to achieving an ACAMS Certification. On completing this suspicious activity report training, you’ll earn four ACAMS credits which can be used as eligibility credits for any of our certifications.
The Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate also forms part of our Advanced CAMS-Financial Crime Investigations program. Advanced CAMS-FCI is an exam-based certification program for those who perform and/or supervise financial crime investigations within regulated institutions. Find out more about becoming Advanced-CAMS certified here.
FAQs
Participants should have a basic level of financial crime prevention expertise, but there are no prerequisites for taking the ACAMS Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate course.
Currently, this ACAMS Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate course is offered in English only.
You have four weeks from the date you purchase the certificate to access the study materials and complete this Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate course. After four weeks, your access to the study materials will expire. The exact date your access will expire can be found on our LMS. Please contact us if you need to extend your access to the study materials.
No, the ACAMS Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate course is an online-only course that can be taken at your own pace. If you’re interested in further training, our Reporting Suspicious Activity Certificate also forms part of our Advanced CAMS-Financial Crime Investigations program. Advanced CAMS-FCI is an exam-based certification program for those who perform and/or supervise financial crime investigations within regulated institutions. Our Advanced-CAMS Certification comes with an optional Virtual Classroom Bundle where you are able to interact with an instructor as well as other students. Find out more about becoming Advanced-CAMS FCI certified here.
Pricing
- Access your self-paced online course
- 400 hours of training webinars live and on demand
- Practitioner toolkits and best practice guides
- Perspectives from 115,000+ global members
- Discounts on all ACAMS products