WASHINGTON – Credit unions citing NCUA as their primary regulator more than doubled the number of suspicious activity reports they filed last year.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's SAR Activity Review-By the Numbers showed the institutions primarily regulated by NCUA increased from 12,254 in 2004 to 25,875 last year.
An NCUA spokesperson said the increase was likely due to three factors: the "increased degree and complexity of suspicious activity," credit unions' proactive vigilance, and stepped up regulatory measures by NCUA.
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Of all depository institutions, California was by far where the most SARs were filed with 130,655 filings in 2005. A distant second was New York with 58,168. Across all the sectors that have to file SARs, California files over half-a-million, accounting for about a quarter of all filings; Vermont had the fewest.
Nearly half of all SARs filed covered Bank Secrecy Act/Structuring/Money Laundering-related suspicious activities. The largest category for "relationship of suspect to the financial institution" was customers with 373,439 filings concerning customers.
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