Consulting Services for Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Investigations and Operations Backlog Support

Client: Fortune 500 Brokerage Firm
The Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Investigations Team within a large US wealth management firm was confronted with increasing backlogs and had a short timeframe to complete cases and meet regulatory requirements.

The Challenge:

Many Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) investigations were at risk of extending beyond regulatory deadlines and the backlog was growing.

The Solution:

Eliassen Group engaged with client leadership to identify the investigation population and targeted SAR ratio. After training Eliassen Group leaders and analysts on client systems and processes, we executed agreed-upon investigations, meeting deadlines and target backlog reductions. In addition, Eliassen developed and produced a weekly investigation dashboard with drill-down reporting.

The Result:

By completing 290 investigations and related SARs, Eliassen Group exceeded the goal for production volume. We also reduced case aging from 90+ days to fewer than 30 days and enhanced the client’s investigation processes and training documentation.