The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), state financial regulators and five federal financial regulatory agencies recently issued a statement to supervised institutions providing risk management and other practices for combatting elder financial exploitation.
Approximately $27 billion in reported suspicious activity during a one-year period ending in June 2023 was related to elder financial exploitation, according to FinCEN analysis of Bank Secrecy Act reports. Victims of elder financial exploitation can lose their life savings and financial security.
Practices that may used to help identify, prevent, and respond to elder financial exploitation include: training employees to recognize and respond to elder financial exploitation, developing effective governance and oversight to protect account holders and the institution, establishing a trusted contact designation process for account holders, and transaction holds and disbursement delays.
Institutions are encouraged to report suspected elder financial exploitation to law enforcement, Adult Protective Services, and other appropriate entities and to provide the appropriate authorities with financial records.
The statement also provided risk management examples.
Supervised institutions include banks and credit unions.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are the regulatory agencies included in the joint statement.