eBond: The Future of Bonds in ACE

Why eBond?

• A June 2011 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General ( OIG) report cited bond execution errors, deficiencies in bond retention, and other issues that challenge CBP’s ability to collect on STBs
• Enhances CBP’s ability to report to Congress or Treasury on key inquiries regarding bonds
• Protects CBP by informing CBP Officers that a valid bond has been secured before cargo is released into commerce

What is eBond?

• An electronic mechanism for the submission of Customs Bonds from a Surety or Surety Agent to ACE via Electronic Data Interface (EDI) to be stored and used for various downstream processes for which a bond is required
• Single Transaction Bonds and Continuous Bonds will be accepted electronically
• Eliminates the mandatory paper requirement when a Single Transaction Bond is used to secure Cargo Release
• Provide a single, centralized repository for all customs bonds within CBP

What are the benefits of eBond?

• Provides 24x7 capability for submission of bonds and processing of entries through EDI
• Standardizes the way CBP interacts with the Trade across ports
• Provides a single repository for all bonds – continuous and single transaction
• Enables CBP Officers to focus on trade and law enforcement mission and reduces the burden on Entry and Import personnel
• A major step in responding to the recommendations from the OIG Audit in June 2011

When to Use eBond?

Continuous Bonds:

For Continuous Bonds, eBond will utilize many of the existing validations used for transaction processing that have been in production for a number of years. There should be little-to-no impact on transaction processing when using a Continuous Bond, regardless of whether the transaction is filed in ACE or ACS.  All Continuous Bonds currently existing today will be valid and usable when eBond deploys January 3, 2015.  There is no need to refile these Continuous Bonds. After deployment on 1/3/15, all Continuous Bond should be filed using the eBond.

For Single Transaction Bonds (STBs) used against an Entry

The following tables provides the scenarios where eBond STB validations will be invoked when eBond deploys to ACE Production on January 3, 2015.

eBond Required: For ACE Entries followed by ACE Entry Summaries, or ACE Entry Summaries certified for ACE Cargo Release, where a STB is used, an eBond will be required starting January 3, 2015.  ACE will implement validations on these inbound transactions where, if a bond is referenced on a transaction, and no bond is found on file in ACE, that transaction will be rejected.

eBond Not Required: For all other STB scenarios listed above, eBond will not be required.  Paper processing of these STBs will continue as they do today.  Due to the eventual retirement of ACS processing for Entries and Entry Summaries, the same eBond STB validations in place for ACE filed transactions will not be deployed to ACS.  As such, we will not perform the system validations to ensure an STB is on file for these Entry/Entry Summaries.  For this reason, operations will remain status quo.

Please note:  If a Superseding or Substitution STB is filed as part of the Entry Summary (at Entry Summary filing or after the submission of the Entry Summary), that filing will be subject to eBond validations.  The Substitution or Superseding STB must be present in the eBond system in order for that Entry Summary to be accepted.

For all other STB Activity types, the filing of those bonds in eBond will be mandatory, as there are no time-sensitive transactional validations that are required, unlike those STB used in the Entry environment.