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SAR

A Suspicious Activity Report is a confidential filing sent by banks or financial intermediaries to regulators when they believe a transaction may be suspicious.

Banks and money service businesses file SARs confidentially when activity matches suspicion criteria; the subject is not notified, and tipping off is itself an offense in most regimes. Filing thresholds combine amounts with subjective judgment.

Aggregate filing volumes are published and large, meaning routine behavior generates reports without consequence for most subjects. The linked article documents what triggers filings and what happens to them.

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