It's 11 PM and you're still at the office, staring at a spreadsheet showing 847 overdue SARs. Some are 45 days past the filing deadline. Your phone keeps buzzing with messages from analysts who can't keep up. Sound familiar?
If you're responsible for AML operations, this nightmare scenario hits way too close to home. SAR backlogs aren't just a workflow problem—they're a ticking time bomb that could destroy your bank's reputation and cost millions in fines.
The SAR Backlog Crisis
What is SAR?
A Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is a form banks must file with FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) when they spot potentially suspicious transactions. It's required by law for things like potential money laundering, fraud, or terrorist financing.
What is a SAR backlog?
It's when Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) pile up faster than your team can investigate and file them. Every bank must file SARs with FinCEN within 30 days of detecting suspicious activity. Miss that deadline, and you're looking at regulatory violations.
Here's how backlogs form: Your transaction monitoring system flags potentially suspicious activity. Your analysts then spend weeks manually investigating each case—reviewing transactions, gathering documentation, writing reports. All while new alerts keep flooding in.
The numbers are staggering. Financial institutions filed over 3.6 million SARs in 2022—a 57% increase from pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Meanwhile, the average investigation time has ballooned from 1.5 days to 4+ days per case due to manual processes.
Real consequences are brutal: regulatory fines (think TD Bank's $3B fines), failed audit findings, and missed suspicious activity that ends up in headlines. Your staff burns out from the pressure, leading to more turnover and bigger backlogs.
Why Traditional Solutions Don't Work
Most banks try to solve SAR backlogs by throwing more people at the problem. But hiring more analysts just creates new headaches.
New investigators need months of training before they're productive. Productivity expectations vary widely, and high turnover means you're constantly training replacements instead of building expertise.
Better software helps, but it doesn't fix the core problem. Your transaction monitoring system might catch more suspicious activity, but investigators still spend 60-70% of their time on paperwork instead of actual investigating.
Spot-checking and manual reviews don't show you where the real bottlenecks are hiding. You're managing symptoms, not root causes.
How Skan AI Solves the Root Problem
Here's what's different about using process intelligence software to tackle SAR backlogs: You finally see exactly how work actually gets done—not how you think it gets done.
See exactly where investigations get stuck. Skan AI's digital twin of operations shows you which steps take longest, which analysts struggle most, and where cases consistently bog down. Maybe your investigators spend 2 hours per case just gathering basic account information that should take 15 minutes.
Identify automation opportunities that actually matter. Instead of guessing what to automate, you see exactly which manual tasks eat up the most time. Skan AI will surface insights such as whether analysts are manually re-entering the same customer data across four different systems for every investigation.
Standardize best practices across your team. Find your fastest investigators and replicate their workflows. If Sarah completes cases in 3 hours while the team average is 6 hours, you can see exactly what she does differently and train others to follow her approach.
Track compliance in real-time instead of discovering problems too late. Get alerts when cases are approaching the 30-day deadline, not after they're already overdue. Continuous controls monitoring software shows you exactly which investigations are at risk before they become violations.
Measure actual improvement with real data. No more guessing whether changes are working. Track cycle time reduction, backlog trends, and investigator productivity with concrete metrics that prove ROI.
Stop Drowning in SAR Backlogs
Your SAR backlog isn't just a process problem. It's a risk management crisis that threatens your bank's compliance, reputation, and bottom line. When banks implement data-driven decision making for their AML operations, the results can be real.
The solution isn't hiring more analysts or buying better monitoring software. It's understanding exactly how your investigations actually work and fixing the root causes of delays.
Ready to eliminate your SAR backlog?
Discover how Skan AI provides you with complete visibility into your AML investigation process.
