I have taken over the role of BSA officer for 2005. I have heard about electronic filing of CTR's and SAR's, and I really like the ideas behind it (confirmation of receipt, can't get lost in the snail mail, ability to send filing to required parties electronically, storage, convenience, etc.).

Anyone out there who uses PACS? Is there any other online filing system to use? I am curious as to how well employees transition from paper to electronic, any costs involved, or any other unforseen negative points. Do the positives out-number the negatives (as I hope they will)?

We are a fairly small bank with occasional CTR's and SAR's to file. Our staff is fairly computer-literate, and with moderate training should pick this up easily...?

Thank you for your input.

We've had PACS for a year and I haven't had time to roll it out to branches yet. However, I've used it to file SAR's and found it was great! My plan for this year (1st quarter) is to train branches so once we do, I'll be in a better position to provide feedback.

We have used PACS for about a year and half now and it is wonderful. I'm in the middle of a project now, but if you pm me you e-mail address, I will send you more information next week.

We are heading into our second year on PACS and still smiling. We have 11 offices where head tellers are responsible for CTRs which they e-mail to a central desk for review & digital signature. Acknowledgements and some documentation are paper but 1/3 of the paper is now on CDs.
There is some time involved in getting digital signatures and software aligned but no $$ expense in the setup or function. I'm sure there is some copy paper savings and as far as reviewing and correcting completed forms you can not beat electronic handling.

Do it.

I'm in the process of registering... came across one small snag...we're a small enough institution that I'm compliance/BSA. PACS seems to request that the head compliance officer give permission for two different individuals to be the supervisor and back-up supervisor for the software (unless fewer than 25 employees, in which case they could be the same person)???

We have an internal auditor that will audit for BSA compliance (since I can't audit my own department). Anyone see a problem, or have a similar situation when registering?

how do you apply?

I did as I'm both compliance and BSA. I listed the SVP/Admin. as the supervisory user (my boss) to get around that issue and then corrected it after we were approved. I think they just wanted to verify that I was indeed employed by the Bank.

Apply by visiting FinCEN's website. On the toolbar to the left, it has a hyperlink to BSA e-filing. Follow the directions from the PACS site from there.