Believing that regulators and law enforcement authorities have set a zero-tolerance level for SAR-filing deficiencies, banking organizations are concerned that in certain situations failing to file a SAR could result in a criminal prosecution. Bankers are telling us that regulatory criticism and criminal prosecutions based on SAR-filing deficiencies can produce collateral consequences.
Real imports, on the other hand, have remained virtually unchanged on average. As a result, the real trade surplus has been increasing with some fluctuations. Reflecting these developments in exports and imports, the nominal current-account surplus has also been expanding significantly since April 1997. Industrial production has recently been somewhat weak. Production in the third quarter 1997 remained virtually unchanged on the whole.