Agencies Issue Interagency Statement on Elder Financial Exploitation

Summary:

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and state financial regulators (collectively, “the agencies”) issued a joint statement to provide supervised institutions with examples of risk management and other practices that may be effective in combatting elder financial exploitation. 

The joint statement provides strategies that can be effective in identifying, preventing and responding to elder financial exploitation.  The joint statement does not establish new supervisory expectations or impose new regulatory requirements.

Statement of Applicability: The contents of, and material referenced in, this FIL apply to all FDIC-supervised financial institutions.

Highlights:

Elder financial exploitation is the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds or other resources for the benefit of an unauthorized recipient.  It can deprive older adults of their life savings in whole or in part, devastate their financial security, and cause other harm.  By issuing the joint statement, the agencies intend to raise supervised institutions’ awareness of, and provide strategies for, addressing elder financial exploitation.

In this statement, the agencies provide information and examples of risk management and other practices that supervised institutions could consider adopting to combat elder financial exploitation.

• Laws and regulations related to consumer protection, safety and soundness, and anti-money laundering may offer protections to those impacted by elder financial exploitation.
• Supervised institutions may consider enhancing or creating risk-based policies, ongoing monitoring practices, and complaint processes to identify, measure, monitor, and mitigate elder financial exploitation.
• Supervised institutions may find it beneficial to provide training for employees on recognizing, deterring, addressing, and responding to elder financial exploitation.
• Transaction holds and disbursement delays can help supervised institutions prevent and respond to various situations that may involve elder financial exploitation, when used appropriately and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. 
• Supervised institutions may establish policies and procedures that enable account holders to designate one or more trusted contacts that bank employees can contact when elder financial exploitation is suspected.
• Supervised institutions may voluntarily file Suspicious Activity Reports for suspicious activities and suspected violations of law or regulation that otherwise do not meet the requirements for mandatory filing, which may include suspicious activities related to elder financial exploitation.
• Some state laws require certain supervised institutions to report suspected elder financial exploitation to Adult Protective Services (APS), local law enforcement, and/or regulatory authorities.
• Supervised institutions may expedite documentation requests and consider providing financial records to APS, law enforcement, or other investigatory agencies for active elder financial exploitation cases, consistent with applicable law.
• Supervised institutions may help protect older adults from financial exploitation by engaging with elder fraud prevention and response networks that include professionals from various agencies and organizations.
• The joint statement provides resources that supervised institutions are encouraged to share with their account holders, and an appendix with a list of resources issued by federal and state agencies on elder financial exploitation.