But first I want to emphasize an important point about the Bank Secrecy Act: Implementation of the act has traditionally been accomplished through a partnership among banks, supervisors, and law enforcement authorities. The law requires reports and recordkeeping that is useful to all these entities. Further, the law capitalizes on the role of banks in payment systems.
As collectors of financial information, banks are in a good position to identify questionable or suspicious payments or activities. For the past decade, the key obligation of banks within this partnership has been the filing of Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, in accordance with regulations issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and all of the federal banking and thrift regulators.