Accentuate the Negative; Or, How to Record Nothing

There's a wonderful song about accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative. It seems in FINRA's case, they want you members to accentuate the negative--that is, to keeps records of what DIDN'T happen.

Specifically, certain examiners have requested that firms that have not filed any suspicious activity reports and have had no suspicions arise (during a certain period of time), put a memo in the AML files to the effect of: "during the period x to y, we did not note any suspicious activity.”

So, while you all have a detailed AML program that explains how you detect illegal activities, how you report them in-house, how you vet them, how you report them to officials and how you document the whole process, the examiners want to see more. They want a record of something that evidences nothing. Or is it, they want a record of nothing that evidences something? Hmmm.

Your firm may want to start documenting such nothingness, if applicable. That way, in your next exam, you won't be surprised by this curious request. Oh, and let's remember not to blame FINRA examiners. I'm serious--they are bending to the will of SEC and federal authorities when enforcing these rules. I bet they think it's curious, too.