Evaluate all the above information : Is the transaction suspicious?
The final step in the suspicious activity identification system is the decision whether or not to make an STR. Due to the fact that suspicion is difficult to quantify, it is not possible to give exact guidelines on the circumstances in which an STR should, or should not, be made. However, such a decision will be of the highest quality when all the relevant circumstances are known to, and considered by, the decision maker, i.e. when all three of the preceding steps in the suspicious transaction identification system have been completed and are considered. If, having considered all the circumstances, staff find the activity genuinely suspicious then an STR should be made.
Staff will seldom, if ever, encounter a situation in which a customer carries out apparently suspicious activity which they have reason to suspect is linked to a specific crime or type of crime. Institutions, businesses or professions are therefore encouraged to make STRs in circumstances where, although they do not know which specific crime or type of crime is connected to the suspicious transaction, there are one or more suspicious activity indicators present, together with an inability or unwillingness on the part of the customer to give a reasonable and legitimate explanation and inconsistency between the financial activity undertaken and that which is to be expected from the customer.