Financial intelligence units (FIUs) face a growing workload as a result of global supply chain complexity, rising criminal sophistication, and an expanding list of regulations. In 2024, financial institutions filed 4.7M Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), up from 4.6M in 2023.
To tackle this expanding workload, automated solutions are helping FIUs reduce manual data collection across multiple databases. This automation, coupled with a proactive screening approach, assists FIUs in uncovering illicit activity before regulatory policy changes or the appearance of an entity on a watchlist. In this blog post, we’ll share how FIUs looking to adopt a more proactive stance to screening can supplement proprietary bank data and watchlists with third-party sources and innovative analytic tools.
>> Uncover hidden FTO risk before regulators do with Sayari’s first-to-market cartel screening solution <<
What is proactive screening?
While there is a need for reactive investigations based on news and indictments, leading FIU teams also seek to identify threats before they are known. This means combining standard controls, such as onboarding due diligence and transaction monitoring, with proactive techniques to detect sanctions evasion, illicit drug precursor imports, and human trafficking. Proactive screening means actively seeking out where risk might be, in addition to reacting to published reports and screening against watchlists.
The benefits of proactive screening
In addition to reducing direct financial loss from fraud, embezzlement, and counterfeiting, proactive screening can also help institutions:
- Ensure compliance and regulatory adherence: Proactive screening helps ensure that institutions meet regulatory requirements and avoid fines and legal consequences by demonstrating due diligence to regulators. Practicing proactive screening can also help institutions adapt to new regulations more quickly.
- Protect brand reputation: By demonstrating a commitment to proactive risk management, institutions can mitigate the risk of harmful hits to brand reputation and maintain the confidence of investors, customers, and regulators.
>> Hear how HSBC successfully executes a proactive risk assessment program <<
Proactive screening techniques in action: sanctions evasion
An investigation by Sayari analysts validated Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporting that dozens of Starlink internet terminals wound up with Russians on the front lines in Ukraine. Sayari analysts also uncovered a vast network circumventing export controls and sanctions on dual-use goods. Starlink terminals, which provide a critical advantage to Ukrainian forces, were reportedly being used by Russian forces in contested areas despite their prohibited use.
Sayari initiated its investigation into the Starlink terminal transshipment network by examining entities linked to shopozz.ru, cited in the initial WSJ report. Utilizing Sayari Graph, our analysts interrogated corporate and trade relationships, uncovering an additional 16 companies in 6 countries within the network. This comprehensive analysis showcased how a corporate and trade network analysis tool like Sayari Graph can quickly reveal insights into how critical U.S.-made items, such as integrated circuits, are transshipped through Hong Kong and other third countries to Russia.
Learn more about uncovering sanctions evasion in Sayari’s case study.
How Sayari helps FIU teams conduct proactive screening
Sayari provides the most comprehensive commercial risk intelligence data on the market, offering corporate ownership data, global trade data, regulatory lists, and negative news for 3.75B entities across more than 250 jurisdictions worldwide. This data helps financial institutions more confidently answer key questions: who is our customer, what are they doing, and who are they doing it with?
Sayari solutions support both traditional onboarding due diligence and proactive screening. Frequently updated risk data, including flags on subsidiaries covered under the new BIS 50% rule and real-time negative news, ensures that FIUs remain on top of regulatory actions and adverse media. Combining this data with comprehensive corporate and trade data empowers proactive teams to quickly uncover broader networks that may include customers requiring further scrutiny.
Sayari’s platform combines key investigative resources in one place, eliminating resource-intensive and manual investigation across separate databases. Data from opaque jurisdictions such as China and Russia and in-application translation support help teams conduct cross-border investigations.
Ultimately, Sayari helps FIUs deliver actionable intelligence in their SARs by integrating corporate and trade data, enabling evidence-backed narratives that empower law enforcement to act decisively. SARs with contextual attribution to known networks are more likely to receive prioritization and be acted upon by government agencies.
To learn how Sayari can help your FIU team conduct proactive screening, request a personalized demo.
