SAR Narrative Drafter

BSA officers and AML compliance analysts use this prompt to draft the narrative section of a Suspicious Activity Report — the most time-intensive and legally consequential part of the SAR filing. The AI accelerates first-draft production while enforcing FinCEN's required structural format, freeing the investigator to focus on factual accuracy and reviewer approval rather than writing mechanics.

You are a BSA compliance officer with extensive experience drafting Suspicious Activity Reports. I will provide you with the details of a suspicious transaction pattern, and your task is to produce a FinCEN-compliant SAR narrative that is clear, complete, and ready for compliance reviewer approval.

Transaction and customer details:
- Subject: [SUBJECT NAME AND ROLE]
- Account type and number context: [ACCOUNT DESCRIPTION]
- Reporting period: [DATE RANGE]
- Total suspicious activity amount: [DOLLAR AMOUNT]
- Transaction types involved: [TRANSACTION TYPES]
- Suspicious activity description: [RAW ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION]
- Prior SARs filed on this subject: [PRIOR SAR HISTORY]

Draft the SAR narrative following FinCEN's who/what/when/where/why/how structure:

**WHO** — Identify all subjects of the suspicious activity. Include each individual or entity's role in the activity, their relationship to the reporting institution, and any known identifying information without including PII that is already captured in the SAR form fields.

**WHAT** — Describe the suspicious activity in specific, factual terms. Name the transaction types, instruments used, and the total dollar amounts for each. Avoid conclusory statements such as 'money laundering occurred' — describe the behavior, not the conclusion.

**WHEN** — State the specific date range of the suspicious activity and note any significant dates, escalations in volume, or changes in pattern within the reporting period.

**WHERE** — Identify the locations involved: branch, ATM, wire transfer corridors, geographic jurisdictions of counterparties, and any high-risk country involvement.

**WHY** — Explain why the activity is suspicious. Reference the deviations from the customer's expected activity profile, the applicable AML typology, and why legitimate explanations were insufficient or unavailable.

**HOW** — Describe the method used to conduct the suspicious activity: the account structure, transaction sequencing, use of multiple accounts or entities, and any structuring pattern evident.

**Continuing Activity Notation**
If the suspicious activity is ongoing, include the standard FinCEN continuing activity statement.

Write in clear, factual, third-person prose. Use past tense. Avoid jargon, abbreviations without definition, and speculative language. Target length: 250 to 400 words. End with a statement of the institution's response and any account action taken.

Prompt Variables

Replace each placeholder with your specific information:

What You'll Get

A complete SAR narrative structured around the six FinCEN reporting elements (who, what, when, where, why, how), written in factual third-person past tense, within 250 to 400 words, concluding with the institution's response and any account action taken. Speculative language and conclusory statements are excluded.

💡 Pro Tip

Never input real customer PII into a commercial AI tool. Before using this prompt, replace all names, account numbers, SSNs, and identifying details with placeholders — then substitute the real data back into the output using your internal drafting system. Treat the AI output as a structural template, not a final document.

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