WHAT ARE SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS (SARS) AND WHAT IS THE ROLE OF FINCEN?
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) are highly confidential filings that are made to FinCEN by banks and other financial institutions concerning activity that they consider to be potentially suspicious. FinCEN is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury. Payoneer is a Money Services Business (MSB) registered with FinCEN and as such is required to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and other relevant Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws and regulations applicable to MSBs in the U.S. Payoneer files SARs on a regular basis as part of its regulatory responsibility to help improve the security of the platform, its customers and the safety of their money. SARs are not, on their own, an indication of wrongdoing.
All payments processed through Payoneer are made through a fully compliant, secure and tightly audited payments platform that is recognized by financial regulators all around the world. Payoneer operates globally, is regulated in a number of jurisdictions, and its compliance record speaks for itself.
FinCEN has conducted an audit of Payoneer in which it delivered a completely clean bill of health with zero findings. SARs do not lead to any presumption of guilt, and the FinCEN clean audit provides evidence that Payoneer’s compliance program meets the standards expected of it. Furthermore, Payoneer uses quality external auditors from top 4 global firms that are complementary of its compliance program. Payoneer’s compliance program meets the highest standards of integrity and accountability in a very highly regulated and closely scrutinized industry.