I created a SAR Committee a few months ago and have been very pleased with the results. On the committee: Internal Auditor, Deposit Operations Mgr, Teller Operations Mgr., Chief Operations Officer, Compliance Dept Staff person, and myself (BSA Officer)(6 total).

Yes, there are some SARs that are no-brainers - the customer did something wrong, all the documentation is clear-cut. I still present these to the committee because we have agreed that this is the decision making committee.

Where I have gotten the most valuable help from the committee is on those "iffy" situations. Customer shows up on an AML rpt - are they really doing something wrong/unusual? My committee has been able to give lots of insight - they may know about the customer's line of business, or they know things about that particular customer. Collectively, there is a lot of experience sitting around the table when we meet.

On the "con" side, I am struggling with the 30-day filing requirement. We are meeting around once a month, but I worry that we may not be getting our SAR filed as timely as it could be.