We have recently uncovered an individual banking with us who has a lengthy criminal background - both domestic and international - and who has served prison time for money laundering among other illegal activities. Needless to say I will be filing a SAR. I have gone as far as I can with our investigation, and although he seems to have covered his tracks well, I suspect he has resorted to his old habits.

My question is this: I have never filed what I would refer to as a "reverse" 314(b) alerting another financial institution to a customer whose suspicious activities it may not have been previously aware of. I know this customer is banking between us and another FI. As long as they are registered to share, would a simple letter to the contact person be appropriate just advising them that we have suspicions about a mutual customer and want to give them notice. Obviously, I would not mention the SAR.

Please let me know if you have had a similar situation and how you have handled it. Thank you.

I would not think of this in terms of reverse 314(b). You are contacting another registered bank in order to compare notes on a mutual customer with an eye toward enhancing your SAR.

My practice in the past has been to email the contact and let them know I wanted to share information about a mutual customer and asking them to call me. I made notes of our conversations, I never sent letters and also did not think email was suitable since customer info would be contained in the email.

I usually send an email with the information pertaining to the investigation for documentation purposes and then will call the bank as well. We have the capability to send encrypted email so I feel comfortable doing so.

FinCEN used some language in its guidance on MRB's that I thought opened the door to using 314(b) as the justification for dropping a dime on a SAR subject:

To the extent the financial institution becomes aware that the marijuana-related business seeks to move to a second financial institution, FinCEN urges the first institution to use Section 314(b) voluntary information sharing (if it qualifies) to alert the second financial institution of potential illegal activity.

Assuming you have evidence of suspicious activity beyond a criminal record, I would still not suggest you use any tangible form of communication. A brief, very brief, fact based phone call to the other bank's 314(b) contact should do it.

Thanks all. Yes Ken, that language from the MRB's guidance is what I was thinking about. I know I certainly would want a heads up to add a customer to our radar.