FDIC Community Bankers Workshop New Date | Monday, January 23- Boise

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Due to staffing issues the FDIC has rescheduled the Community Bankers Workshop originally planned for September 13th. The new date is Monday, January 23rd, 2023. The date change has allowed us to combine the Workshop with the Legislative dinner and ICBA Winter Conference. Attendees will have the option to register for the Workshop or Conference separately or both at a discounted fee. Registration will open later this fall. Please see the draft schedule below as it’s much different than years past. A block of discounted rooms has been reserved at the Grove Hotel. The FDIC training, Legislative Dinner, and ICBA Conference will be held at Boise Centre on the Grove, located next to the Grove Hotel. The ICBA Board meeting will remain at the Grove Hotel.

Monday, January 23rd, 2023

7:30am- 3pm, FDIC Community Bankers Workshop

3:30- 5pm, ICBA Board of Directors Meeting

5:30- 7:30pm, Legislative Dinner

Tuesday, January 24th, 2024

7am- 3pm, ICBA Leadership Conference

Rooms reservations can be made now by calling the hotel directly at (208) 489-2222 or (888) 961-5000 and asking for the Idaho Community Bankers group block (rate of $154 a night). A reservation link will be provided at a later date.

IBA will be sending schedule and registration information as we get closer.

Best Practices to Prevent Elder Abuse

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According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), millions of elderly citizens are targeted annually with some form of financial fraud, and many of these attempts are successful. It has been estimated that seniors lose approximately $3 billion per year as a result of these scams, which are becoming more widespread and sophisticated.

Surprisingly, much of the criminal activity is initiated by a friend or family member. A recent study by the University of Southern California revealed that 55% of respondents reporting any type of elder abuse categorized those acts as financial, and that family members were the most alleged perpetrators of elder financial abuse.

With these facts in mind, banks should maintain heightened sensitivity around transactions that involve elderly clients, particularly if these clients have historically managed their own finances and may be exhibiting signs of cognitive decline. Increased vigilance, in general, can assist in uncovering fraud.

Knowing the customer, coupled with a comprehensive employee training program, can act as a strong front-line tactic to help banks prevent and expose elder financial abuse.

Here are some best practices for recognizing “at-risk” clients:

  • Be on the lookout for non-family members being added to banking or investment accounts.
  • Monitor large money transfers and changes in spending patterns, as these could be signs that some form of abuse is occurring. A senior’s spending habits are often predictable in frequency, volume and payees.
  • Be alert for large amounts of funds exiting accounts to payees who had not been previously paid in any manner.
  • Keep detailed notes in the form of dated, journal-type entries, recording any spending or personal behavior that seems unusual. These notes would be in addition to those kept on risk tolerance, goals, objectives, etc.
  • Follow up with clients via phone or email to discuss any sudden financial decisions that seem out of character.
  • In addition to making personal contact, encourage the client to engage an independent attorney to assist in their financial matters.
  • Understand the laws that apply to the financial abuse of an elder client. Follow prescribed protocols if any illegal activity is suspected.
  • Implement internal procedures to elevate circumstances which may present the need for further inquiry and analysis to the appropriate decision-makers.

“It’s important not just to have a system in place to detect elder financial abuse, but to also act on situations where potential fraud or malicious intent has been identified,” said Kristin Roger, Vice President and Head of Financial Institutions at Travelers. “We know banks want to serve as trusted advisors to their customers, and by taking simple steps, they can better protect their customers from potential financial harm.”

Elder financial fraud is on the rise and counts as one of the more heinous abuses of trust that senior citizens might endure. Along with the financial damage inflicted on customers, incidents of elder financial fraud can cause serious reputational harm. Therefore, implementing a sound method of prevention, detection, identification and reporting of this criminal behavior is paramount.

Travelers is committed to managing and mitigating risks and exposures, and does so backed by financial stability and a dedicated team – from underwriters to claim professionals – whose mission is to insure and protect a company’s assets. For more information, visit www.travelers.com.

 

House to Consider Credit Union Charter Expansion Bill

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June 9, 2022

The Honorable Jim McGovern
Chairman
House Rules Committee
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Tom Cole
Ranking Member
House Rules Committee
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman McGovern and Ranking Member Cole:

On behalf of the American Bankers Association and state bankers associations from every state in the country, we ask that you reject the inclusion of the credit union charter enhancement bill H.R. 7003 (the Expanding Financial Access for Underserved Communities Act of H.R. 7003) in H.R. 2543 (the Financial Services Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Economic Justice Act).

H.R. 7003 is a self-serving piece of credit union legislation masquerading as a financial inclusion initiative. The bill expands field of membership and commercial lending authority for taxexempt credit unions, two of the industry’s long-standing political priorities, by claiming those charter enhancements would improve access to financial services in underserved areas.

However, this legislation does not deliver on the purported objective of improving banking access nor does it address the needs of underserved communities. It instead should be seen for what it is: a pretext for charter enhancement at ongoing cost to taxpayers.

The absence of Community Reinvestment Act requirements on credit unions in this legislation is extremely troubling. Any sincere effort to improve financial inclusion through credit unions must include comparable mechanisms to ensure accountability. This is especially urgent since credit unions are receiving a tax subsidy to serve the underserved. Credit unions regularly tout their commitment to low- and moderate-income communities, so they should welcome the opportunity to demonstrate that taxpayer dollars are being spent as intended.

There is simply no justification or need for this legislation. Community credit unions can already serve underserved areas if they identify a local need and choose to do so. Although by statute, only “well-defined local communities” can be the basis of a community credit union’s membership, remarkably, there are multiple regulatory paths for a credit union to add multi-state areas to their membership and count that as a “local” community. Without this legislation, a community credit union can already choose to focus on any area, underserved or not, inside those expansive spaces.

The legislation also creates a major and highly controversial new loophole in the credit union business lending cap, which Congress rightly put in place to keep this tax-exempt industry focused on its specified mission of “meeting the credit and savings needs of consumers… through an emphasis on consumer rather than business loans.” (Senate Banking Committee Report 105- 193) (emphasis added). Bankers remain staunchly opposed to any effort to weaken that important limitation.

Expanding financial access to underserved communities is an important and shared goal. Loosening credit union membership criteria under the guise of financial inclusion and without appropriate consumer protections, however, is not. We strongly urge you to strip H.R. 7003 from H.R. 2543.

Sincerely,

American Bankers Association
Alabama Bankers Association
Alaska Bankers Association
Arizona Bankers Association
Arkansas Bankers Association
California Bankers Association
Colorado Bankers Association
Connecticut Bankers Association
Delaware Bankers Association
Florida Bankers Association
Georgia Bankers Association
Hawaii Bankers Association
Idaho Bankers Association
Illinois Bankers Association
Indiana Bankers Association
Iowa Bankers Association
Kansas Bankers Association
Kentucky Bankers Association
Louisiana Bankers Association
Maine Bankers Association
Maryland Bankers Association
Massachusetts Bankers Association
Michigan Bankers Association
Minnesota Bankers Association
Mississippi Bankers Association
Missouri Bankers Association
Montana Bankers Association
Nebraska Bankers Association
Nevada Bankers Association
New Hampshire Bankers Association
New Jersey Bankers Association
New Mexico Bankers Association
New York Bankers Association
North Carolina Bankers Association
North Dakota Bankers Association
Ohio Bankers League
Oklahoma Bankers Association
Oregon Bankers Association
Pennsylvania Bankers Association
Puerto Rico Bankers Association
Rhode Island Bankers Association
South Carolina Bankers Association
South Dakota Bankers Association
Tennessee Bankers Association
Texas Bankers Association
Utah Bankers Association
Vermont Bankers Association
Virginia Bankers Association
Washington Bankers Association
West Virginia Bankers Association
Wisconsin Bankers Association
Wyoming Bankers Association

cc: Members of the House Rules Committee
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

IBA Announces 2022 Primary Endorsements

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