Definition
Look-Back Review
A retrospective review of historical transactions or alerts over a defined period, to identify suspicious activity that should have been reported at the time.
By Bart Mierzejewski · Founder, FinCrime Desk · Reviewed Sep 19, 2026
Why it matters
Look-backs are why the contract market in this field exists. They are usually mandated by an enforcement action, run to a regulator-visible deadline, and staffed at scale and at speed — which is why they pay well and why so many careers in financial crime begin on one.
In practice
Typically run by a consultancy or an outsourcing provider, often with hundreds of reviewers working to a written procedure and a quality-assurance layer. The work is repetitive but it teaches alert disposition and SAR narrative writing faster than almost any other seat, and look-back experience reads clearly on a résumé.