Guidance Issued On When To FileSARs

WASHINGTON - (07/05/05) Federal regulators have releasedclearer guidelines on when to file suspicious-activity reports. Theguidelines follow complaints primarily from the banking industrythat examiners were second-guessing their decisions on when to fileSARS and when not to. "Examiners should focus on whether the bankhas an effective SAR decision-making process, not individual SARdecisions," said the manual on compliance. "The bank should not becriticized for the failure to file a SAR unless the failure issignificant or accompanied by evidence of bad faith." The 330-pagemanual was the work of multiple agencies.