Thanks to everyone for their comments. I am glad to know I am not alone in the "feeling overwhemled" department. I know I lose enough sleep worrying about just compliance issues, but then dealing with the BSA issues on top of all of that can make one crazier than ever (can make for a really bad case of CRADD). Is it just me or does it seem to take a huge CMP to get exec. management's attention sometimes? I am blessed with management that for the most part is supportive and we have the green light to find automated software, but now we have vendor interface problems. Now the next huge task is to try to find an automated solution....oh yeah, and while I am reviewing large cash transactions, reviewing CTRs, and "why is this guy doing this in his account?" and "why don't these employees recognize this as suspious?" Do you sometimes feel like you are the only one in the bank who a) knows what suspicious activity is and b) will actually not be afraid to take steps and take care of it?
So in a dream world for a small banker doing BSA patrol, we want: management support, better training to have support folks (front line in this case) actually contributing, a big enough budget to get the automated software that we need/want, maybe a little help in general (like the understanding that what is required to have a tight program can be all-consuming and requires all hands on deck)....ah, but we can hope. And pray. Thanks to everyone's input. Hopefully the mini-rants helped too!