A record 364,366 cases of dubious financial transactions were reported by financial institutions last year, the National Police Agency said Saturday.

The figure was up 8 percent from the previous year. Of these reports, the agency said it launched formal investigations into 886 cases involving criminal acts, including 15 instances of money laundering, up 316, or 55 percent, compared with 2011.

An NPA official attributed the surge in the number of reports to “information we have provided to financial institutions on how to spot dubious transactions through (previous) cases.”