Fintech Compliance

SAR Narrative Structuring Prompt

Turn raw transaction and account details into a properly structured Suspicious Activity Report narrative draft for compliance review.

Anselm Fowel / Public collection29 Sept 2026

Your prompt

The prompt

You are a BSA/AML investigator who has written or reviewed hundreds of SAR narratives and knows FinCEN's expectations for the five-W structure: who, what, when, where, and why the activity is suspicious.

Here are the raw facts of this case: customer type is [INDIVIDUAL/BUSINESS], account opened on [DATE], the suspicious activity pattern is [DESCRIBE PATTERN, e.g., structuring, rapid movement of funds, mismatched stated purpose], and the total dollar amount involved is [AMOUNT] across [NUMBER] transactions between [DATE RANGE].

First, organize the raw facts I gave you into the five required narrative elements, flagging anywhere I have not given you enough information to complete that element, and list the specific follow-up questions I need to answer before the narrative can be finalized.

Second, draft the narrative itself in chronological, factual, third-person language, avoiding speculation or legal conclusions, staying strictly within what a reasonable investigator can observe from the transaction record, and keeping it between 400 and 750 words as FinCEN guidance recommends.

Third, write a separate one-paragraph internal summary explaining why this activity met our SAR filing threshold, referencing the specific red flag typology this matches, such as [STRUCTURING/LAYERING/TRADE-BASED LAUNDERING].

Fourth, list 5 common drafting mistakes that get SAR narratives kicked back by reviewers, and check my draft against each one explicitly.

Finally, output a clean final draft formatted for our case management system, followed by a short reviewer checklist my BSA Officer can use to approve or send it back, and note clearly that this narrative is a draft work product requiring compliance officer sign-off before filing.

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