There is a rule in BSA that says you are not to place a SAR in an employees file. I cannot find it though, can someone help me?

Since in many States an employee has access to their personnel file by law or even if it not - it could be subject to a subpoena and you can't tell the subject of a SAR that one has been filed, so..............

Just not a good practice if you want to maintain your safe harbor.

In addition, there is no need for it to be there. The underlying incident should be fully documented in the employee's file, but the fact that a SAR was filed is wholly irrelevant to the employee's history with your company.

Are we supposed to be bringing the fact that a SAR was filed to the Board? How much information should they receive?

If so, what would we do if we had to file one on a Board member?

If a SAR is filed on an employee, you have to report the fact to the board (or designated committee, if your regulatory requirement permits it) just as you would report any other SAR filing. In such cases you might go into a little more detail that you would for a SAR on a non-employee.

If you had to file a SAR on a board member, you would be required to report the fact to the board, except not to the board member(s) whom you had "SAR-red." That presents interesting challenges. I think you either telephone those to whom you are reporting the SAR or you arrange for a special (certified) confidential mailing to all but the targeted board member, and ask that the chairman arrange for a confidential memorandum of the notification be filed in the official board minutes.

Nanwa,
As John said, all SAR filings must be reported to the board. Page 47 (document, not PDF file) of the revised examination procedures bestows some grace on how much you have to report to the board or its committee. In addition, footnote 51 reiterates prior guidance on how to handle the "rare instance" when suspicious activity is related to an individual in the organization; e.g. a director.

Confidential? THIS Board? Yeah, right!

rlcarey,

I don't think it should be in the employee file, but your subpeona disclosure argument is a different issue. There is nothing that prevents a bank from redacting SARs that may be part of subpeonaed information, pursuant to US code that clearly states that SARs cannot be disclosed.

This seems to come up all the time on this board regarding board minutes as well. I have heard from more than a few of my friends that kept SAR reporting to the directors down to minimal info to prevent this as well, only to be hammered when the exam came for not giving the board enough info.

Just make sure your HR people are as up to date on the redaction ability as you

All in all still a bad idea.