BA005 · Correspondent Banking

Rapid Movement

Rapid movement is the velocity / layering signal at the heart of correspondent-banking monitoring: funds land on an account and clear back out again almost immediately, resting only long enough to register a balance change before they are gone. It is not defined by who sent the money or where it ends up — those can look entirely ordinary on any single leg — it is defined by HOW FAST the funds move and HOW MUCH volume passes through an account relative to what it normally holds.

The finding lives in four places: how briefly the funds dwell on the account before clearing onward, how large the turnover is relative to the account's own balance (an account that turns over many multiples of its balance every cycle is not behaving like an ordinary deposit account), how widely the outbound leg disperses across multiple onward destinations rather than settling with one counterparty, and how closely the outbound amount tracks the inbound amount — near-total pass-through with almost nothing retained.

Risk indicators

Dwell Time

• Inbound funds clearing back out within hours of arrival
• Balance spikes that resolve to near-baseline within the same reporting cycle

Velocity

• Turnover many multiples of the account's own average balance
• Throughput inconsistent with the account's declared purpose or segment

Onward Dispersion

• Outbound funds splitting across several distinct onward destinations
• Destinations with no independent commercial rationale for receiving the funds

Value Match

• Outbound amounts tracking inbound amounts almost 1:1
• Round-number consistency between inbound and outbound legs inconsistent with genuine

Investigation actions

1. Resolve the account, its source, and every onward destination (first, second).
2. Compute the dwell time from inbound clearing to outbound clearing.
3. Compute the velocity ratio (total turnover amount / average balance).
4. Count the distinct onward destinations the outbound leg disperses across.
5. Compute the value match ratio (outbound amount / inbound amount).
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 account, its source, and every onward destination (first, second). 2. Compute the dwell time from inbound clearing to outbound clearing. 3. Compute the velocity ratio (total turnover amount / average balance). 4. Count the distinct onward destinations the outbound leg disperses across. 5. Compute the value match ratio (outbound amount / inbound amount). 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/BA005_Rapid_Movement.md