Wire Fraud - An Ever Present Threat
Keeping a Constant Vigil on the Danger Signs
By Lori Moore, CRCM, Director of Compliance

The recent demise of Osama bin Laden brings back many memories of 9/11. One memory, in particular, stands out; counter terrorism experts talking about the uptick in “chatter” – the threads of information the intelligence community looks for and listens to that signal an increased threat of attack. In addition to such disturbing memories, Bin Laden’s death also raises concern among BSA/AML experts that, in the wake of this event, financial institutions could see a spike in terrorist attempts to filter money through the U.S. financial system. Due to its inherent nature, there is probably no bank offering that poses as much risk in this regard as wire transfers. However, terrorists are not the only ones that use wires for ill gotten gains. In order to understand the current and emerging perpetrators of wire fraud, financial institutions, much like the intelligence community, must stay alert to the relevant chatter.   
 




OFAC 201: Are You Prepared to Take a Hit?

Being “OFAC Compliant” goes far beyond the screening process. Routinely checking the OFAC SDN list is the first, crucial step, but eventually that screening will likely yield a potential OFAC hit? Are you prepared? Do you know how to confirm and respond to a positive match or clear a false one? Join us for this in-depth follow up to OFAC 101. We will walk through “potential match” scenarios, so you know exactly what to do and how to communicate with OFAC, no matter whether it involves a new or existing customer. After this OFAC 201 webinar, you will be prepared to minimize your penalty risk from any OFAC hit.

Speaker: 

Lori Moore, CRCM
Director of Compliance
ATTUS Technologies

5/26/2011 3:00PM to 4:00PM ET

Question: What is the wire requirement regarding record retention for wire transactions?

Answer:  
Wire transfers in the amount of $3,000 or more must be retained for a period of five years. The information that must be obtained and retained depends on the role of the financial institution in the wire transfer process.  

As of March 1, 2011, FinCEN transferred the BSA regulations from 31 CFR Part 103 to 31 CFR Chapter X. The bank specific rules can be found under Chapter X Part 1020. As a result, 31 CFR Part 103.33 was transferred to Subpart D 1020.410, which describes the records to be made and retained by an originating bank, intermediary bank, and the beneficiary’s bank.

Got a question on a tricky regulation? We want to hear from you.  Submit your question and an expert will answer it in a future issue.



Data Breaches: 3 Lessons for Leaders 
Recent Incidents Impress Importance of Key Skills
Upasana Gupta, BankInfoSecurity.com

In March, RSA, a trusted name in the security industry, suffered a major security breach of its SecurID product, proving that no organization is immune to such incidents.

Then, in April, the Epsilon e-mail breach exposed the risks of data security managed by a third-party service provider.

Two weeks later, Sony Corp announced that hackers had stolen names, addresses and possibly credit card details from 77 million user accounts of its PlayStation Network and Qriocity online service.

RSA, Epsilon and Sony: Three major security incidents that dominated the headlines and sent ripples throughout security organizations worldwide. How is your organization planning for such incidents? 

ATTUS is now offering Bankers Assistant* to provide immediate relief to financial institutions struggling with the increasing burden of managing the entire compliance process. Financial institutions can now get all of their compliance, IT and other controls onto a single, SaaS platform for dramatic reductions in the cost of compliance.

Developed by Continuity Control, the leading platform provider for compliance automation, Bankers Assistant provides significant and sustained cost savings over any financial institution’s manual processes, but it also facilitates better controls and a more thorough audit trail for improved compliance adherence and documentation,” said Lori Moore, CRCM, director of compliance for ATTUS. “One of the most effective tools is the Monitor that allows financial institutions to see all of their compliance activities and their status in real-time.”

Get back to the business of banking.