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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-receives-record-number-of-suspicious-activity-reports-11547155674\nU.K. Receives Record Number of Suspicious-Activity Reports\nFigures come amid debate about U.K. effectiveness against money laundering\nSamuel Rubenfeld\nBiographySamuel Rubenfeld\nJan. 10, 2019 4:27 pm ET\nU.K. crime fighters said they received a record number of reports between April 2017 and March 2018 concerning transactions with red flags for money laundering, terrorism financing or other financial crime.\nThe National Crime Agency said in an annual report that it received 463,938 of these suspicious-activity reports, or SARs, during the period, up about 10% from the year prior. Of those, the NCA said, 22,619 raised concerns about potential money laundering, a 20% increase from the previous year.\nA SAR is a document produced for law enforcement that indicates certain activity from a customer or client is in some way suspicious.\nMore in Risk & Compliance\nSociété Générale Sued Over Seized Cuban Bank July 15, 2019\nSEC Chairman’s Stance on Waivers Gives Companies More Certainty But Does Little to Stem Controversy July 15, 2019\nU.K. Lays Out Plans to Fight Economic Crime July 12, 2019\nAntitrust Compliance Policy Revamps All-or-Nothing Approach to Corporate Leniency July 12, 2019\nThe report comes amid a debate about authorities’ effectiveness at stemming the flow of dirty money into the U.K., which has tried in recent years to push back against a reputation of being a stash house for corrupt money from all over the world.\nLate last year, the Financial Action Task Force, an international standards-setting body, said the U.K. has a robust regime to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, but that it needed to strengthen its supervision and increase resources devoted to its financial intelligence unit.\nSpecifically, the U.K.’s suspicious-activity reporting regime needs to be modernized and reformed, the FATF said.\nThe U.K. government has been aware of issues with its reporting regime for years. In 2015, the U.K. chapter of anticorruption group Transparency International said authorities investigated few reports of suspicious activity.\nAdvocates pointed to the FATF concerns, as well as the scale of illicit funds flowing through the U.K., as evidence of the issue’s urgency.\n“For those who spend the time diligently filing a report on suspicious activity, this can feel like shouting into a void,” Rachel Davies Teka, head of advocacy at Transparency International U.K., said in an emailed statement.\nBanks filed more than 80% of the SARs recorded for the report. Other financial institutions filed most of the rest. Accountants filed about 5,000 of them, up 13% from the previous year. And legal professionals filed 2,660, down 12%.\nMs. Teka said the small share of SARs from accountants, lawyers and other company-service providers were concerning, adding that they contribute to perceptions that there are professionals in the U.K. who are either complicit or unknowingly involved in moving criminal funds.\n“Law enforcement authorities should be coming down hard on those individuals and firms found not to have submitted reports after incidents of clear money laundering,” she said.\nThe NCA expects the volume and complexity of SARs to rise, and it planned for an additional 46 jobs in the financial intelligence unit to address the increase.\nMark Hays, an anticorruption campaign leader at London-based nonprofit Global Witness, said the NCA’s findings were disturbing, particularly that legal professionals produced only 0.5% of the reports submitted.\n“The NCA still lacks the resources to deal with the problem,” he said, “let alone push for greater compliance.”\nWrite to Samuel Rubenfeld at samuel.rubenfeld@wsj.com\nRisk management, strategy and analysis from Deloitte\nThe New Deals: The Changing State of M&A Activity\nOn the heels of one of the strongest years on record for deals, respondents to Deloitte’s sixth annual M&A Trends survey report identified factors, from escalating trade wars to slowing global growth, that would slow the pace. But shifts in the broader economic environment are also reshaping the strategic rationale behind the types of deals that are getting done in 2019."