Pub. 9 2019 Issue 2

8 www.azbankers.org reasonable period of time,” what is considered reasonable will vary according to the facts and circumstances of the particular activi- ty being reviewed and the effectiveness of your SAR monitoring, reporting, and decision-making process. The examiner will be look- ing to make sure that you have “adequate procedures for reviewing and assessing facts and circumstances identified as potentially sus - picious, and that those procedures are documented and followed.” One question that comes up often during the review process is the extent to which a bank has to confirm the underlying criminal activity to support a SAR. While the BSA requires you to report suspicious activity that may involve money laundering, BSA viola- tions, terrorist financing, and certain other crimes above prescribed dollar thresholds, you do not have to investigate or confirm the underlying crime itself. Law enforcement will handle the investiga- tion. When evaluating suspicious activity and completing the SAR, you should, to the best of your ability, identify the characteristics of the suspicious activity. Your bank plays a crucial role in helping the government catch people who are engaged in terrorist financing, money laundering, and other illegal activity. You must have systems in place to monitor for consumer activity that is designed to further such illegal activity and report the suspicious activity to the proper authorities. While your systems should flag all unusual activity, you will not be filing SARs on all of it. Your reporting requirement arises when you have reason to suspect that the identified activity is the kind of suspicious activity under the BSA. You should promptly review all unusual behavior to determine whether you are dealing with suspicious activity and must file a SAR, and then file that SAR within 30 days (or 60 days if you cannot identify a suspect). Compliance Alliance members have access to our BSA toolkit, which contains many tools to help you fulfill your SAR filing requirements. w Chris W. Bell serves as Associate General Counsel for Compliance Alliance. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Memphis (Memphis. TN), a Master’s degree in Political Management from the George Washington University (Washington, D.C.), and a JD from the St. Mary’s University School of Law (San Antonio, TX). Chris began his career working for a regional bank in Tennessee, where he developed a passion for serving customers through the banking system. In law school, Chris focused his studies on the different financial aspects of the law, including the Internal Revenue Code and Uniform Commercial Code. Chris has worked in the legal department of a federal savings bank and for the Texas De - partment of Banking. As one of our hotline advisors, Chris helps C/A members with a wide range of regulatory and compliance questions and he is one of our featured authors. Your bank plays a crucial role in helping the government catch people who are engaged in ter- rorist financing, money laundering, and other illegal activity. You must have systems in place to monitor for consumer activity that is designed to further such illegal activity and report the suspicious activity to the proper authorities. While your systems should flag all unusual activ- ity, you will not be filing SARs on all of it. Continued from Page 7