How to evaluate Suspicious Transaction/Activity Notification (STR/SAR) On report desk In Compliance Planet Anti Money Laundering/Core Banking Finance Software

            This is the final stage of processing STR/SAR Notifications. Once approved by the reporting officer, the Notifications can be downloaded. Below are steps on how to finalize approval to report STRs/SARs. Also, in this section, you will learn how to download an STR/SAR file.

How to Evaluate and Give Final Approval

Notifications that have been approved by revising officer(s) and/or supervising officer(s) move to the ‘REPORTING OFFICER PENDING NOTIFICATION (S)’ list to be given the final approval. The treatment of a SAR Notification is different from that of a STR Notification. Therefore, the review and final approval on the reporting desk is categorized into two (2) on this desk; EVALUATING AND APPROVING STRs and EVALUATING AND APPROVING SARs.

NOTE: You have to be profiled as a report evaluation officer on report desk with rights to EDIT to be able to carry out this operation.

In this section, you will learn how to evaluate and give final approval for each Notification type, but first, here is how to locate a pending Notification irrespective of its Notification type (STR or SAR).

STEP 1: from the left hand side menu, Click on ‘REPORTS’ as in fig 6.5a below

fig 6.5a

• This will display a drop down as in fig 6.4.1b below. The dropdown lists the report types available on the compliance planet software.

STEP 2: Click ‘NFIU STR/SAR on the drop down list. See an example in Fig 6.5b below.

fig 6.5b

• This will display the NFIU STR/SAR page as in Fig  6.5c below

Fig 6.5c 

STEP : From the top menu, click Report desk as in Fig 6.5d below

• This displays a page as in fig. 6.5e below.

(fig. 6.5e)

• The notification(s) highlighted “RED” indicates that the notification(s) has not been viewed by anyone on the Reporting desk.
• The notification(s) highlighted “GREEN” indicates that the notification(s) has been viewed by you alone.
• The notification(s)  highlighted “WHITE” indicates that the notification(s) has been viewed by you and at least one other Reporting officer(s)
•  The notification(s)  highlighted “BLUE” indicates that the notification(s) has been viewed by other Reporting officer(s) excluding you

You can increase the number of notifications you want to see per page by clicking on the ENTRIES box. Pick any number of entries per page of your choice. See fig. 6.5f below for an example.

(fig. 6.5f)

STEP 2: You can sort the notifications by clicking on any of the column header, either by alphabetical order or from the latest to the earliest notifications or vice-versa. This step is optional. See fig. 6.5g for an example.

(Fig. 6.5g)

STEP 3:          Click on the VIEW box to see notifications classified according to the stage of processing they have gotten to. See fig. 6.5h for the classes of Notifications available to a reporting officer’s view. Select any of them.

(fig. 6.5h)

As seen in fig. 6.5e above, the classes are;

1. Reporting Officer Pending Notification(s); these are STR/SAR notifications that have been reviewed and approved by a revision officer and/or supervising officer but they have not been treated by the reporting officer. This is the default view of the reporting officer
2. Reporting Officer Approved Notification (s); these are STR/SAR notifications that have been treated, approved by reporting officer. Once a notification is approved by reporting officer, it joins the Approved Report(s) Pending Download list.
3. Reporting Officer Rejected Notification(s); these are STR/SAR notifications that are not satisfactory to the reporting officer. When a notification is rejected by the reporting officer, the supervising officer will get a mail notification to revisit the STR/SAR notification and send again if need be.
4. Approved Notification(s) Pending Download; these are STR/SAR notifications that have been treated and approved by all officers and await download.
5. Approved Notification(s) Downloaded; these are STR/SAR notifications that have been downloaded.

STEP 4: After selecting the class of Notification (s) from the VIEW box, click on ‘VIEW REPORT(S)’ to see the notification(s). This button is at the top-right corner of the page just as it was in the pages for the other desks. See fig. 6.5i for an example.

(fig. 6.5i)

• Also, you can search for a particular notification by typing the customer name or account number concerned in the search box. See fig. 6.5j below for an example of a search

(fig. 6.5j)

• Also, at the bottom-right corner of the page, the software gives information about the number of pages, with the page numbers written out. All the page numbers represent buttons to go to each page. By clicking on any page number, the software takes you to that particular page. There is the ‘NEXT’ button to take you to the next page when you click on it and there is the ‘PREVIOUS’ button to take you to the page before the current page. See these features in fig. 6.5g above.
• From fig. 6.5e, 6.5f, 6.5g, 6.5h, 6.5i and 6.5j above, it can be seen that the NFIU STR report page reveals information about the notifier, the date of notification, the reported account number, the reported account name and the report type.  The report type column specifies if the Notification is a suspicious transaction or a suspicious action. As stated earlier, the treatment of Notifications differs according to their report type. Now, that you already know how to locate Notifications for final review and approval on the reporting desk, here is how to treat each report type.

A.      EVALUATING  AND APPROVING A SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION (STR)

This section provides a guide on how to evaluate and approve a suspicious transaction. The STR Notifications awaiting final approval are in the ‘REPORTING OFFICER PENDING NOTIFICATION(S)’ list.

Note: You have to be profiled as a Reporting officer on report desk with rights to EDIT to be able to carry out this operation.

STEP 1: Select ‘REPORTING OFFICER PENDING NOTIFICATION(S)’ from the VIEW box as shown in fig. 6.5k below.

(fig. 6.5k)

STEP 2: Click on VIEW REPORTS. This will display Notifications awaiting final approval.  See the cursor clicking on this button and the Notifications in fig. 6.5l below.

(fig. 6.5l)

STEP 3: Select the STR to be treated by clicking on the ’DETAILS’ button at the end of the notification row. See the cursor clicking on the button in fig. 6.5m below.

(fig. 6.5m)

• This displays a console titled, ‘STR Final Evaluation’. See fig. 6.5n below for an example of the STR final approval console.

(Fig. 6.5n)

• This console offers information about the revision officer and the supervision officer with their comments and actions. The final approval console for STRs has two features the console for SARs does not have.

These are;

1. Scanning and adding details of transactions related to a suspicious transaction in the report to be generated.
2. Previewing the tagged related STR transactions.

STEP 4:          Enter reason to decline (If any) based on your observation. This step is mandatory if you want to reject the Notification. Check out fig. 6.5o below for an example.

(Fig. 6.5o)

STEP 5: Click on ‘SCAN AND INCLUDE STR RELATED TRANSACTION’ to add STR related transaction(s) to the report to be generated. Adding details of related STR transactions will make your report comprehensive and well detailed. Clicking on this button will bring up another console on which you are to input the details of the related transaction. See fig. 6.5p below for an example of a scan console.

(fig. 6.5p)

Follow the instructions below to make use of a SCAN CONSOLE;

1. Enter the Account Number involved in the related transaction. This account number must exist in the account base.
2. Enter the transaction ID.
3. Click on the ‘Tran Type’ box to select the CTR/FTR Transaction type from a drop-down list as in fig. 6.5q below and set the transaction date from ‘Tran Date’ as seen in fig. 6.5r also.

(fig. 6.5q)                                                                              (fig. 6.5r)

• Here is how to make use of a calendar. Take a look at the arrows labelled a – d in fig. 6.5s to study the calendar;
• Click on the given year to change it to your year of choice.
• Click on the given month to change it to your month of choice.
• Click on the date of the month.
• You can also click on the angle brackets on the calendar [ ‘<’ or ‘>’ ] to go backward or forward.

(Fig 6.5s)

1. Enter the amount involved in the related transaction.
2. Input the ‘narration’ of the related transaction.
3. Click on ‘START SCAN’ for software to scan and include the transaction in the Notification. See the cursor pointing to this button in fig. 6.5q below.
4. To clear all the details already entered in, click on ‘CLEAR SCREEN’. The software will wipe off the details immediately.
5. To close the scan console, click on ‘CANCEL’.

See fig. 6.5t below for an example of a console with already filled in details, ready for scanning.

(fig. 6.5t)

• The software immediately starts a scan when you click on ‘Start Scan’. During the scan a notification will be displayed at the top of the page. See fig. 6.5u for an example.

(fig. 6.5u)

 STEP 6: Click on ‘Preview STR Related Transaction(s)’ to see the related STR transactions you scanned earlier. This button is next to the ‘SCAN AND INCLUDE STR RELATED TRANSACTION’ button. See this feature in fig. 6.5o above. By clicking on the preview button, a table will appear right under the scan and preview button, listing the scanned STR related transaction(s) as in fig, 6.5v below.

(Fig. 6.5v)

• As seen in fig. 6.5v above, the table comes with features to delete the transaction from the STR, see the details of the transaction and details of the account involved.
• To delete a scanned transaction from the Notification, click on ‘DISCARD’. See an example in fig. 6.5w below.

(fig. 6.5w)

• To see the details of a transaction, click on ‘TRAN DETAILS’. This button is between the ‘discard button’ and the ‘Acc details’ button as seen in fig. 6.5x below.

(fig. 6.5x)

• By clicking on ‘TRAN DETAILS’, a console as in fig. 6.5y below will be displayed, giving details about the scanned transaction.

(fig. 6.5y)

• You can also edit some of the transaction details. The details that can be changed are; source account number, source account name, source account bank code, destination account number, destination account name and destination bank code. To edit these details, click on ‘EDIT’. This button is on the title pane of the console. See the cursor clicking on the ‘EDIT’ button in fig. 6.5y above.
• Clicking on ‘EDIT’, a console with the aforementioned details will be displayed as in fig. 6.5z below. Make the changes you want and click on ‘SAVE CHANGES’. See the cursor clicking on the button to save the changes made in fig. 6.5z.

(fig. 6.5z)

• Click on ‘ACC DETAILS’ to see the details of the accounts involved in the scanned related transaction. See an example in fig. 6.5aa below.

(fig. 6.5aa)

• Clicking on the ‘ACC DETAILS’ button, a console will be displayed as in fig. 6.5ab below. As seen below, this console gives details about both the source account and the destination account. These details cannot be edited. After viewing, click on the ‘DISMISS CONSOLE’ button at the bottom-right corner of the console.

(fig. 6.5ab)

• You can scan and include as many transactions as you want to your suspicious transaction Notification.

STEP 7: Click on ‘ACCEPT’ to approve the STR or ‘REJECT’ if Notification is unsatisfactory. The software will display a confirmation console to confirm your selected option. See fig. 6.5ac and 6.5ad to see examples of when you choose to ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ respectively. To proceed, click on CONFIRM and to cancel the action, click on CANCEL. Check that you are sure of your options before confirming your request to reject or accept the Notification because this step is irreversible.

     (fig. 6.5ac)                                                                         (fig. 6.5ad)

B.      EVALUATING AND APPROVING A SUSPICIOUS ACTION (SAR)

This section provides a guide on how to treat a suspicious action and give a final approval. The SAR Notifications awaiting final approval are also in the ‘REPORTING OFFICER PENDING NOTIFICATION(S)’ list.

NOTE: You have to be profiled as a report evaluation officer on report desk with rights to EDIT to be able to carry out this operation.

STEP 1:          Select ‘REPORTING OFFICER PENDING NOTIFICATION(S)’ from the VIEW box as shown in fig. 6.5ae below.

(fig. 6.5ae)

STEP 2: Click on VIEW REPORTS and notifications awaiting final approval will be displayed immediately.  See the cursor on this button and the Notifications in fig. 6.5af below.

(fig. 6.5af)

STEP 3: Select the SAR to be treated by clicking on the ’DETAILS’ button at the end of the SAR notification     row. See the cursor clicking on the button in fig. 6.5ag below.

(fig. 6.5ag)

• This displays a console titled, ‘SAR FINAL EVALUATION’. See fig. 6.5ah below for an example of the SAR final approval console.

(fig. 6.5ah)

• From the example in fig. 6.5ah shown above, the final approval console for SARs reveals information about action taken and the reason(s) for the Notification, but is different from the console for a STR. This console has a feature for adding report person(s) to an SAR.

STEP 4: Enter any extra notes in the “reason to decline “box based on your observation. This step is mandatory if you want to reject the Notification. Check out fig. 6.5ai below for an example.

(fig. 6.5ai)

STEP 5: Click on ‘ADD REPORT PERSON(S) TO SAR’ to add details of report person. Report person refers to the person that sent the SAR Report.This displays a console as in. Fig. 6.5aj is an example of the console to input details of report person.

(fig. 6.5aj)

• Follow the instructions below to make use of the console seen in fig. 6.5ag.
• Select the gender of report person by clicking on the ‘Gender’ box.
• Enter the title of report person
• Enter the first name of report person
• Enter the middle name of report person
• Enter the last name of report person
• Click on ‘SAVE’. To close the console, click on CANCEL.

See fig. 6.5ak for an example of a console with details ready to save

(fig. 6.5ak)

• The software will add the new information you have added right under the ‘ADD REPORT PERSONS TO SAR’ button just as in fig. 6.5al below. Click on ‘ADD REPORT PERSONS TO SAR’ to add more persons.

(fig. 6.5al)

• As shown in fig. 6.5al above, there are two buttons at the end of the row for each report person. These are; ‘EDIT’ button and ‘DELETE’ button. To change the details for a report person, click on ‘EDIT’ and the console just as in fig. 6.5ak above will be displayed.  Make the changes and click on save. To remove a report person from a SAR, click on ‘DELETE’.

STEP 6: Click on ‘ACCEPT’ to give final approval or ‘REJECT’ to disapprove the Notification. A confirmation console will be displayed to confirm your selected action. See fig. 6.5am and 6.5an to see examples of when you choose to ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ respectively. To proceed, click on ‘CONFIRM’ and to cancel the action, click on ‘CANCEL’. Check that you are sure of your options before confirming your request to accept or reject the Notification because this step is irreversible.

(Fig. 6.5am)                                                                            (fig. 6.5an)