Breaking The Silence: Regulators Clarify Rules On SARs And Customer Fraud Disclosures

On September 2, 2026, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the Agencies), together with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), issued a Joint Statement on Suspicious Activity Report Confidentiality Considerations Regarding Communications with Customers (the “Joint Statement”). The guidance addresses a long-standing tension: how banks can communicate transparently with customers about potentially fraudulent transactions, account restrictions, and closures without violating the statutory prohibition against disclosing the existence of a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). It does not alter existing Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) legal or regulatory requirements or establish new supervisory expectations. Still, five agencies speaking with one voice carries real practical weight for