BA002 · Correspondent Banking

Funnel Accounts

A funnel account is a collection point: it receives many small, geographically-dispersed deposits from unrelated depositors, then rapidly moves the aggregated funds onward to a single downstream beneficiary before the pattern can be reviewed. It is the collection-side mirror of BA001 Structuring — where structuring conceals the deposit pattern beneath a reporting line, funnelling conceals the collection pattern behind volume and dispersion, then clears the account out fast.

The finding is a fan-in / fan-out finding: it lives in how many distinct regions the depositors are drawn from, how many distinct unrelated depositors feed the account, how briefly the funnelled cash dwells on the account before it clears onward, and how much of the outbound funds concentrate on one downstream beneficiary.

Risk indicators

Geographic Dispersion

• Deposits sourced from many distinct regions inconsistent with a single local customer base
• Depositor locations with no plausible relationship to the account holder's declared

Inflow Fan-in

• A large number of distinct, apparently unrelated depositors feeding one account
• Deposit sizes individually unremarkable, but the depositor count itself is anomalous

Rapid Passthrough

• Funds clearing onward within hours of landing, with no plausible accumulation purpose
• Passthrough timing inconsistent with the account's declared business cycle

Beneficiary Concentration

• Outbound funds concentrated on a single downstream beneficiary rather than dispersed
• Beneficiary already flagged elsewhere in the network

Investigation actions

1. Resolve the funnel account, its source depositors, and its beneficiary.
2. Count the distinct regions the source depositors are drawn from.
3. Count the distinct depositors feeding the account.
4. Compute the longest in-to-out dwell before the funds clear onward.
5. Compute the beneficiary concentration ratio (top beneficiary amount / total outflow).
6. Score each of the four components against its band cut-lines.
7. Aggregate the weighted exposure score; escalate at or above the threshold.

Detection logic

1. Resolve the funnel account, its source depositors, and its beneficiary. 2. Count the distinct regions the source depositors are drawn from. 3. Count the distinct depositors feeding the account. 4. Compute the longest in-to-out dwell before the funds clear onward. 5. Compute the beneficiary concentration ratio (top beneficiary amount / total outflow). 6. Score each of the four components against its band cut-lines. 7. Aggregate the weighted exposure score; escalate at or above the threshold.

Related typologies

Curated from fc-06-correspondent-banking-analytics-toolkit/typologies/BA002_Funnel_Accounts.md