Insights

The DOL Fiduciary Rule...Maybe Not As Bad As You Think

Unless you’ve been in solitary confinement or otherwise “off the grid” in the world of wealth management and retirement accounts, you have probably heard of the Department of Labor’s Conflict of Interest Rule, more commonly known as “the Fiduciary Rule.” The Fiduciary Rule was published in the Federal Register on April 8, 2016, became effective on June 7, 2016, and had an original applicability date of April 10, 2017, with a phased implementation period ending on January 1, 2018. Original time frames were established under President Obama’s administration, but after President Trump took office in January, things began to get “interesting” – for lack of a better term.

Jun 21, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: Bryan Meddings

BSA/AML Risk Management and Electronic Banking

Just as certain products and services offered by financial institutions pose a heightened level of risk, how customers interact with those products and services also alters the levels of associated risk, as well as the regulatory expectations for risk mitigation.  Financial institutions should consider all indicators of risk when evaluating methods of risk mitigation.  In this article, we will focus on electronic banking.  E-banking continues to become exponentially more important to the financial industry, both in terms of serving customers and presenting new challenges from a regulatory and risk standpoint.  

Jun 20, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: Nick Bonnema

CECL Methodologies Series: Cumulative Loss Rate

In a recent article, CECL:  Getting Started, we looked at setting specific milestones to help guide management teams through the CECL implementation process. The first milestone we suggested was to investigate available CECL methodologies. In the next several articles, we will explore some of the different methodologies and their pros and cons, starting in this article with the cumulative loss rate methodology.

Jun 20, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: Brett D. Schwantes

ESOPs: Align Employee Interests With Long-Term Business Goals and Succession Planning

More and more companies are struggling to attract and retain good employees. Today’s younger generations are not committed to or even looking for a lifelong career, and it is getting harder to find and keep good people. The workforce is changing, and in order to stay competitive, business owners are going to have to offer more benefits and flexibility than ever before. 

Jun 20, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: Nicole L. Stewart

Have You Considered Your Redlining Risk Recently?

Those of us who have been in banking for a few decades remember some of the earlier redlining cases of the 1990s, which until recently seemed to be a thing of the past, a dark point in our history. But the recent uptick in enforcement activity involving redlining should cause us to stop and take another look at the geographies and communities from which we take applications and in which we originate loans.  

Jun 20, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: Melissa D. Blaser

Internal Controls – Back to the Basics

Performing a thorough, quality internal control risk assessment, documenting management internal controls, and identifying missing control points are rigorous tasks that all organizations, including financial institutions, are challenged with on an ongoing basis. Bank executives, regulators, boards of directors, and external auditors are all very invested in internal controls. Strong, well-thought-out internal controls are not just for Fortune 100 companies, they are also important for local community financial institutions.  

Jun 20, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: John Schroeder

EMail Compromise – Is Your Institution Vulnerable? Do You Know How to Report It?

On September 2016, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) updated its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Key Advisory Terms to add a new key term. FinCEN periodically issues these advisories to provide institutions with guidance on potential threats that may affect the U.S. financial banking system. The advisories also provide guidance to financial institutions on preparing SARs related to the covered activity. This article will discuss the details of the September 2016 advisory, including SAR preparation tips. The most recent advisory term addition, e-mail compromise, was the result of a recent spate of compromised personal and business e-mail accounts. According to the FBI, there have been approximately 22,000 reported cases involving $3.1 billion since 2013. These scams not only hit businesses and individuals but also financial institutions directly. The scams present themselves as follows: Business e-mail compromise (BEC) fraud, which means the cyber criminal is targeting a financial institution's commercial customers, and e-mail account compromise (EAC), which involves a victim's personal accounts. 

Jun 20, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: Robin Guthridge

What You Should Know Before Outsourcing Bank Services

Have you outsourced or are you thinking of outsourcing any banking services?  If so, here are some things to consider. 

The federal regulators actually have an act called The Bank Service Company Act (the “Act”), which was first introduced in 1962.  

Jun 20, 2017
Industries: Financial Institutions
By: Teri Downey