can I classify a bail bonds business as high risk based on the nature of this business? Is it considered a cash intensive business or non-financial institution, since they lend money? Please advise.

You can classify anything as high risk.

I believe this could also be dependent upon your overall BSA Program and Risk Assessment. We do not classify any customer as high risk based on only one factor. We have several factors that are weighted, such as occupation/type of business, geographic location, products/services obtained, length of relationship, transactions, etc. Then an overall score is produced along with a risk ranking of high, medium, or low.

The only time we would really classify a customer as high risk without looking at the whole picture and considering all of the factors would be if we filed a SAR previously and management decided to keep the account open.