Five federal financial regulatory agencies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and state financial regulators have issued a statement to provide guidance on combating elder financial exploitation. The statement includes examples of risk management and other practices that may be effective for supervised institutions.
According to a FinCEN analysis of Bank Secrecy Act reports, approximately $27 billion in suspicious activity related to elder financial exploitation was reported over a one-year period ending in June 2023. This highlights the significant impact such exploitation can have on older adults, potentially resulting in the loss of life savings and financial security.
The statement outlines various measures that banks, credit unions, and other institutions can implement to combat this issue. These include developing governance policies, training employees to recognize signs of exploitation, using transaction holds when necessary, establishing trusted contact processes for account holders, timely filing of suspicious activity reports with FinCEN, and reporting suspected cases to law enforcement or Adult Protective Services.
Institutions are also encouraged to engage with elder fraud prevention networks and increase awareness through consumer outreach efforts.
The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is noted as an independent federal agency tasked with regulating federal credit unions. It operates the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund which insures deposits for more than 135 million account holders across federal credit unions.
For further information or media inquiries regarding this initiative, several contacts from different agencies have been provided:
- CFPB: Mike Robinson at 202.597.4022
- CSBS: Laura Fisher at 202.360.4918
- FDIC: Julianne Fisher Breitbeil at 202.898.6993
- FinCEN: Candice Basso at 703.626.4549
- FRB: Chelsea Grate at 202.452.2955
- NCUA: Joseph Adamoli at 703.518.6572
- OCC: Anne Edgecomb at 202.649.6870