Reported by Rabihah Butler

(Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/government/sars-evolved-ci-first/)

The CI-FIRST initiative

In early 2025, the CI-FIRST initiative was introduced, aiming to establish a transparent and effective partnership between federal agencies and private financial institutions. This program enhances transparency around SARs filings, providing financial institutions with clearer insight into how their submitted SARs are utilized in federal investigations. By doing so, it marks a significant shift in the way SARs are handled.

CI-FIRST fosters a more collaborative relationship between financial institutions and federal investigators, allowing for direct feedback and communication. This open dialogue could lead to more efficient and effective SARs processes. Moreover, the program has the potential to be a blueprint for other agencies, demonstrating a successful model for improving data quality and facilitating more robust information sharing. The success of CI-FIRST could have far-reaching implications for the way financial crimes are investigated.

Within this fraud landscape, several troubling patterns emerged that underscore the sophistication and persistence of financial criminals. For example, check fraud has demonstrated resilience despite the digital age, with financial institutions filing 682,276 SARs related to this traditional form of fraud, representing a notable uptick from previous periods.

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CI-FIRST fosters a more collaborative relationship between financial institutions and federal investigators, allowing for direct feedback and communication.

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Even more alarming was the dramatic 36% surge in account takeover fraud, a cybercrime that reflects criminals’ increasing ability to exploit digital vulnerabilities and compromise customer accounts. This surge resulted in nearly 178,000 reports, underscoring how criminals are adapting their methods to target online banking and other digital financial services.

The SARs data also revealed that identity theft remained a persistent threat, comprising more than one-quarter of all fraud-related SARs filed in 2024. This substantial proportion demonstrates how personal information breaches continue to fuel criminal enterprises across multiple fraud categories. Perhaps most concerning from a societal perspective was nearly 10% increase in elder financial exploitation cases compared to 2023, with 171,233 SARs filed specifically addressing crimes against vulnerable older adults. This trend reflects not only the increasing targeting of seniors but also potentially improved recognition and reporting of these crimes by financial institutions.